Petraeus is no hero to the Iraqis

There's no way this would ever be allowed to reach the political level of Petraeus being asked to leave, but if there's that much tension there, how much is really getting done?

A key aide says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s relations with U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus are so poor the Iraqi leader may ask Washington the withdraw the well-regarded U.S. military leader from duty here.

The Iraqi foreign minister calls the relationship “difficult.”

Petraeus says his ties with al-Maliki are “very good” but acknowledges expressing “the full range of emotions” on “a couple of occasions.”

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who meets together with al-Maliki and Petraeus at least weekly, concedes “sometimes there are sporty exchanges.”

The majority of the dispute seems to be over Petraeus' plan to arm the Sunni groups (outlined in the next post.) Second hand, we get a report that

“(Maliki) told Bush that if Petraeus continues doing that he would arm Shiite Militias. Bush told al-Maliki to calm down,” according to the lawmaker who said he was told of the exchange by al-Maliki.

According to this reporting, this is the context through which Maliki said American forces could leave earlier this month.

This is alot of heresay reporting, but it does fit with everything else we've heard.