   Religious Conflicts The U.S. Bet On Maliki Led To Iraq
Disaster  The stunning gains this week by Iraq's Sunni
insurgents carry a crucial political message: Nouri al-Maliki,
the Shiite prime minister of Iraq, is a polarizing sectarian
politician who has lost the confidence of his army and nation.
He cannot put a splintered Iraq together again, no matter how
many weapons the Obama administration sends him. Maliki's
failure has been increasingly obvious since the elections of
2010, when the Iraqi people in their wisdom elected a broader,
less-sectarian coalition. But the Obama administration,
bizarrely working in tandem with Iran, brokered a deal that
allowed Maliki to continue and has worked with him as an ally
against al-Qaida. Maliki's...