What's Your Plan?

News reports about the meeting between President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki in Jordan are mentioning that one of the things on Mr. Bush's agenda is to ask Maliki for his plan to bring an end to violence in Iraq. So far, none of the newsreaders I've heard say this have failed to keep an even and serious tone, which must take a lot of skill. I can barely say it out loud without laughing.

Bush is asking Maliki what his plan is?

What happens when Maliki says his plan is to stay the course, while constantly adapting his tactics to win? Will it be acceptable to Mr. Bush to hear that Maliki believes the only way his government is going to lose in the struggle is to give up?

Mr. Bush is the one who started the war and who heads the occupation army, the one who didn't fire Rumsfeld when he shrugged about post-invasion looting, and who has had years to bring up a newly-trained Iraqi army to replace the one his viceroy disbanded. And now he'd have us believe that it's Maliki's plan that matters?

Now, if Bush was really asking Maliki about the role parts of his own government have in supporting Shiite violence against Sunnis, that might be helpful. But Mr. Bush in Estonia said that it's really al Qaeda that's setting the sides against each other. Perhaps Maliki could humor him, and say that his plan for ending the violence is to have the Americans finish getting rid of the al Qaeda they allowed into his country. Of course, that would involve reminding Mr. Bush that, despite his rhetoric, there wasn't a significant al Qaeda presence in Iraq before the US invasion.

To be fair, it is good to see that the President is jetting around the globe, doing the 'diplomacy thing'. It would be good to have more international help to get us out of this mess. It would be swell if between them Maliki and Jordanian King Abdullah could improve the President's understanding of facts on the ground. Maybe they can pressure him to develop his plan.