And what have I been saying for the last month?

Nothing is going to get done politically in Iraq until either the US commits to withdrawal or Maliki's government falls. The Iraqis are no longer looking to the present construct, there are planning for what comes next.

As Washington wrestles over the future of the Iraq war, Iraqi leaders already have resigned themselves to the likelihood that the Americans soon will withdraw at least some of their troops, the country's ambassador to the United States said Tuesday.....

"Most Iraqi leaders have now come not only to acknowledge but almost to accept the inevitability of some level of drawback of American troops in the not-too-distant future," said Sumaidaie, who was previously Iraq's interior minister and United Nations envoy. "And there's a lot of thinking about how to deal with that … how to adjust ourselves to that reality."

By not making the changes now (or at least announcing them) the US is guaranteeing political stagnation. The way forward is to announce the way forward. You know?

(But, of course, that would also be admitting failure....)