Mr Bu$h had a videoconference yesterday with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. During the conference they discussed the growing rift between Bu$hCo and the Iraqis who seem to be developing a growing sense that they’re actually a free and independent country.

BAGHDAD, Oct. 28 — President Bush stepped into an increasingly fractious relationship with the Iraqi government in a videoconference with Baghdad on Saturday after days of angry comments by Iraqi leaders about what they see as American meddling.

The 50-minute conference between Mr. Bush and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki took place after an acrimonious conversation late Friday between Mr. Maliki and the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad. According to an aide to Mr. Maliki, the Iraqi leader said that he was “a friend of the United States, but not America’s man in Iraq.”

That should be self-evident. Ambassador Khalilzad is our man in Iraq. After all, Prime Minister Maliki doesn’t get his instructions from himself. (As far as we know he has not been seen in public talking to himself, so he must be getting his instructions from Khalilzad.)

In the videoconference, Mr. Maliki, sitting beside Mr. Khalilzad in the Green Zone, opened with praise for Mr. Bush, according to Tony Snow, the White House press secretary. “History will record that because of your efforts Iraq is a free country,” Mr. Maliki said, echoing a statement he made on his trip to Washington three months ago, according to Mr. Snow, who sat in on the session.

According to a high Bu$h malAdministration source who begged to remain unnamed because he had a wife and children this greeting of praise took up the first 45 minutes of the 50 minute videoconference. It has been reliably reported that such preambles are now mandatory in any face-to-face meeting with Mr Bu$h.

Mr. Snow said that Mr. Maliki made “no demands, and it was a very cordial discussion.” But the prime minister, he said, made clear that he wanted to move quickly toward “an Iraqi assumption of command and control” over forces operating in Baghdad and elsewhere.

A Maliki spokesman, Ali Dabbagh, said the prime minister had said the Iraqi government wanted more control over its army, which operates under Americans.

The Arabs, Iraqis included, are a very polite race when engaged in discussions. It is customary to proceed slowly, and to approach topics of interest in politely couched terms, often using “veils” when discussing a topic. The same unnamed official quoted above said this request meant, “When the fuck are you infidel bastards going to leave us alone?”

IN a possibly related developent, CNN is reporting that,

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen fired on Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's convoy, wounding one guard, in one of the capital's southern suburbs Sunday, an Iraqi government spokesman said.

Al-Maliki was not present in the convoy, however, which was traveling in Baghdad's Rasheed district, the spokesman said.

After the incident the U.S. military and Iraqi forces conducted a search for those responsible.

The attacks comes a day after al-Maliki told U.S. President George W. Bush that he answers first to the Iraqi government and people, according to an Iraqi official.

A-Hah! Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.