Foreign powers bogged down in Iraq have tended to externalize their problems before. After the 1920 revolt against the British, some analysts in London were convinced that the main problem was in Persia (and in pan-Islamism) even though this uprising was first and foremost a local affair (or a collection of local affairs). Bush is at least more nuanced here than the UK’s Tony Blair – who tends to ascribe most of Iraq’s problems to evil Syrian and Iranian influences. Clearly, there is an element of truth in some of their accusations, but this should not detract from the profound challenges facing the internal Iraqi national reconciliation project.

There are many problems in his policies, but President Bush must be lauded for holding on to this vision of Iraqi coexistence.

The president seems to be understating the acute need for progress on the constitutional revision front.

“and Iraq’s other leaders” – these innocuous words may be of considerable import. The number of Iraqi leaders whom Bush has spoken directly to over the last period is probably quite limited. Who are they, aside from Nuri al-Maliki, Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, Tariq al-Hashimi and Jalal Talabani? This might be an indication that the Bush administration is indeed hoping to control Iraq through a handful of selected “communal” leaders (whose influence within their supposed “ethnic” constituencies Washington tends to wildly exaggerate). SCIRI claims that Hakim spoke to Bush again on the phone as late as 10 January in the evening Baghdad time – only hours ahead of Bush’s address.