Ambassador Khalilzad finished off his Arabian Nights version of a press conference introduction with assurances that "victory" was possible and "success" achievable in the foreseeable future.

The solution was simple: "Iraqi leaders must step up to achieve key political and security milestones on which they have agreed." (There's a new ad-jingle-style line to replace our President's "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down": "As the Iraqi leaders step up, we will…")

Like some genie from a bottle, Prime Minister Maliki, our recalcitrant "partner," who only the previous week had to check with George Bush to make sure he still held his job, promptly stood up at a rival news conference and "slammed" American officials for demanding a timeline. ("I affirm that this government represents the will of the people and no one has the right to impose a timetable on it.")

Still, he seemed to grasp the essence of the message the ambassador and general were sending out: "Al-Maliki said he believed the U.S. talk of timelines was driven by the upcoming U.S. midterm election. ‘We are not much concerned with it.'"