Since the success of the 2007 surge in Iraq, violent attacks have fallen more than 90% and Iraqis have been making steady progress toward stability and democracy. That momentum is now threatened by the actions of Iraq's prime minister, Nouri Maliki, and by the inaction of the Obama administration.
We can't let Maliki ignore inconvenient results and engineer a victory that voters did not give him. I know that this might just be giving Iraq War opponents what they've always wanted--a friendly strongman capable of holding Iraq together by force--but that isn't why we bled for the last seven years. After Saddam's reign, it could be considered a bare victory to get a pro-American strongman, but we can achieve so much more with relatively little extra effort--and little of it in blood.
Remember, it isn't democracy until losers vacate their offices peacefully and everyone comes to expect that as the norm.
