Death To America! No no no, VIOLENT Death To America!

Kevin Drum is right, the fact that Nouri al-Maliki and Muqtada al-Sadr are both trying to prove who the most anti-American Iraqi politician is makes it, shall we say, difficult to continue having a presence in Iraq.

"All the politicians are trying to prove that they care more about Iraqis than they do about Americans -- otherwise they know the people and the voters will not support them," said Ala Maaki, a senior lawmaker with Iraqi's largest Sunni political party. "I think we could see al-Maliki and Moqtada Sadr trying to one-up the other today and see who can take the strongest stand against the Americans."

All of this would vanish if we simply, you know, left Iraq, instead of demanding permanent bases.