Today Reuters has reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has mentioned that a timetable for withdrawal is being batted around in negotiations for a new security deal in Washington:
“Today, we are looking at the necessity of terminating the foreign presence on Iraqi lands and restoring full sovereignty, one of the two basic topics is either to have a memorandum of understanding for the departure of forces or a memorandum of understanding to set a timetable for the presence of the forces, so that we know (their presence) will end in a specific time.”
This is the first time that Maliki’s government has brought up the prospect of time table. As of yet, the Bush administration hasn’t made a response. Of course, this is understandable given how damaging this is to Bush’s stance that withdrawal is unacceptable. The McCain campaign also has yet to respond. Maliki’s statement places him in line with the policies of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party,
If I had to predict what the Bush administration’s response would be, I would think that there are few ways he could go. The first would be that he’ll agree to withdrawal. This would neutralize the Democratic advantage on Iraq and would enable them to take credit for having ended the war. The second would be that Bush he would promise to talk about withdrawal, but ultimately not agree to it. The final would be that Bush would do what he has done and stay the course.
The photo used was uploaded to Flickr by soldiersmediacenter who licensed it under a Creative Commons Attribution License and my use of the photo in no way indicates an endorsement of the article from soldiersmediacenter .
July 18, 2008 at 6:50 pm
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