It's a latter-day illustration of the ancient paradox: Cretans always lie, said the Cretan.

Which brings us to our old friend Ahmad Chalabi. My friend Eli Lake, a lieutenant, perhaps now a capo, in the DC neocon army, reports that Chalabi is now claiming that it was on his advice that Prime Minister al Maliki tipped his hand in favor of Barack Obama's withdrawal plan in his comments to the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Meanwhile, surgemeister Fred Kagan says Maliki really wants us to stay but the Iranians are pressuring him.

Of course, US intelligence alleges that Chalabi has worked as an Iranian spy. So perhaps there's a unified theory of Chalabi bamboozlement that a more systematic mind than I can construct.

Or perhaps we just go with Occam and figure that Chalabi had nothing to do with it at all but wants to snag some credit on the cheap.