I’ve mentioned before that Iraqi PM Maliki has said that the US is free to leave Iraq whenever it likes. I mean, it’s not the sort of thing you talk about in front of the neo-cons, but hey, there it is. And it seems everything is not all that peachy between the head of US forces in Iraq and the PM either:

A key aide says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s relations with Gen. David Petraeus are so poor the Iraqi leader may ask Washington to withdraw the overall U.S. commander from his Baghdad post.

Iraq’s foreign minister calls the relationship “difficult.” Petraeus, who says their ties are “very good,” acknowledges expressing his “full range of emotions” at times with al-Maliki. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who meets with both at least weekly, concedes “sometimes there are sporty exchanges.”

It seems less a clash of personality than of policy. The Shiite Muslim prime minister has reacted most sharply to the American general’s tactic of enlisting Sunni militants, presumably including past killers of Iraqi Shiites, as allies in the fight against al-Qaida here.

An associate said al-Maliki once, in discussion with President Bush, even threatened to counter this by arming Shiite militias.

Who outside six people in GWB’s inner circle and three-and-a-half Beltway pundits actually supports US policy in Iraq any more? I don’t think we can even include the Howard government: they pay lip service to teh surge, but they won’t actually join it.

Anyway, as the above article unfolds, more voices are cited saying that things between the two really aren’t that bad, and what reason would we have to doubt the word of anyone associated with the White House?

Oh, and by the way: Four million Iraqis are in “dire need of food” according to Oxfam.