Can 300 US Military Advisers save Iraq?

However the message from President Obama was clear: Shi'ite Nouri al-Maliki must begin embracing the Sunni minority.

I don't believe he will. Under US pressure the Iraqi Prime Minister already had years to reverse his Sunni marginalisation policy and only 2 months ago in free elections millions of Iraqis voted for him and set him up to form a new government with the largest parliamentary bloc.

Meanwhile Shia neighbour Iran surely does not want to see a resurgence of Sunni political power in Iraq.

For me nothing from President Obama's statement gives me hope Iraq can be prevented from sliding to all out civil war.

Interesting that Iraqi state television chose not to show the Obama press conference live, even though the feed was clearly coming in on a screen behind the newscaster.  Perhaps they knew something.

John Cookson has been reporting from Iraq for 25 years for international news channels including Al Jazeera English and Sky News.  Twitter: @Newsman1000