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-——Tongue planted firmly in cheek, I hope-——

No, of course not. I carefully chose every word to express the concept. Maliki is the elected president of a government that was created from air, He has a great deal of responsibility to proceed carefully but forcefully to create or obtain assistance to create that which must be created.

A strong hand and forceful personality is required. He has been provided the reins and must drive the coach.

There is a great and constant denigration of Arabs that is mostly delusion on the part of the denigrators. To assume there will be failure because of what amounts to racial superiority and blatant religious bigotry is a serious error and indicative of a serious lack of real knowledge.

To assume instant agreement by the factions and instant kumbaya togetherness is also a serious error in thinking. That is why a democratic autocrat is needed to apply a firm hand while shaping and reshaping and reshaping the amorphous political form.

To assume the present status is failure is also error. To assume time till absolute success is zero is a ridiculous and ignorant error also. History is a process, not an event. The historical process is unfolding in Iraq under the direction of an elected president. If he were totally unacceptable, he would not be.

Maliki is the elected president of a government that was created from air

All governments are "created from air" if that level of pedantry is to be exercised, but Maliki is not president; he's the appointed prime minister.

Jalal Talabani is the president of Iraq, and that position isn't directly elected by the people nor via an electoral college, but elected by and at the power of the Council of Representatives (imagine Congress having the sole power to elect the POTUS). Talabani is a member of a smaller minority (the Kurds), so his own position may be in danger now.

A strong hand and forceful personality is required

I'll take this sentence as instruction to disregard the rest of your post.