One indication that Iraq may actually be evolving into a democracy is that its Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki seems to be emerging as a genuine “pol” of the type we are used to in the West.  His interview with Der Spiegel ^[1] is right out of the conventional politician playbook, right up to the non-denial denial about taking sides in the US election.  This too sounds like a “talking point” from one of our Sunday morning “Sabbath gasbags”: “The Americans have found it difficult to agree on a concrete timetable for the exit because it seems like an admission of defeat to them. But it isn’t.”  Ah… democracy.  What did Churchill say about it?