NIE report postulated that the al-Maliki government had six to twelve months before it would collapse

Undaunted, Birnbaum forged ahead, stating that the NIE report postulated that the al-Maliki government had six to twelve months before it would collapse.

Charles Krauthammer took up the verbal cudgel, saying "Look, despite how the Maliki issue is being used here politically, he has to go. He's a disaster, not just because he's weak but because he may not be our friend. He said earlier in the week, when he was in Syria when he heard about what Senator Levin had said about ousting him, 'Well, we have our friends in the region.' He means Syria and Iran. We should have been working to undermine him for at least all of this year. ... And it isn't undemocratic. Iraq has a parliamentary system. In every parliamentary system in Canada or Britain or elsewhere if you lose the confidence of the Parliament, you go."

Comment: So, let me get this straight. Al-Maliki is a bad leader because he doesn't dance to the tune played by the United States and instead tries to forge alliances of mutual benefit with his neighbors, one Shi'a (Iran), one with a Shi'a government ruling over a Sunni population(Syria)? *