Er, excuse me, but...

...didn't we just get told by your boss that this was an Iraqi decision?

Baghdad, Nov. 30 (Washington Post) - The top U.S. diplomat in Iraq said Tuesday that security conditions would improve enough here in the coming months to allow national elections to proceed in January as scheduled, and he suggested that the country's minority Sunni Muslim community would likely abandon plans to boycott the voting once it became clear it would not be postponed.

Speaking to foreign reporters over lunch at the U.S. chancellery here inside the secure green zone, U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte gave the clearest indication yet that the Bush administration would not allow a delay in the Jan. 30 elections, which U.S. officials have called an essential step in establishing the first broadly accepted government in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. His comments served as an unequivocal U.S. response to more than a dozen Sunni Muslim organizations, who in recent days have threatened to boycott the voting and potentially undermine its legitimacy in the eyes of many Iraqis.

The Bush administration won't allow it? Who the hell is actually in charge here? Or did we just get reminded of the answer?