The Real News Network has the video which they have titled Did the U.S. Bargain On ISIS Undermining al-Maliki? This is probably the most inflammatory way to advertise this interview, but there are many more things discussed here that are worthwhile to think about.

Maybe the headline is not so inflammatory if you read it as “Did the U.S. Plan on ISIS Undermining al-Maliki?” The original headline first struck me as saying that the U.S. had held bargaining sessions with ISIS. The second way of stating it makes it clear that is not what this story is about. The term planning means to me that they needed to get something to move al-Maliki from his intransigent position of refusing to implement the kind of government needed to stabilize the region. Perhaps an existential threat to his government might actually get him to act for the benefit of all the Iraqi people, for once. If even this threat cannot get al-Maliki to be reasonable, then I think the best idea is to leave him to the consequences of his own behavior. He is not too big to fail.

This interview, at the very least, gives you some ways to think about the situation that you are not going to hear from the Lame Stream Press.

John McCain and Lindsay Graham may be playing games in cahoots with President Obama to influence al-Maliki. If they are not playing games under those auspices, then they are playing their usual uninformed and thoughtless games of trying to drive us into war. In this case, the alternatives to war could actually help to solve problems in this part of the world rather than make them worse. Which path do you think the US will actually take?