he United States and Iraq have agreed to seek “a general time horizon” for deeper reductions in American combat troops in Iraq despite President Bush’s once-inflexible opposition to talking about deadlines and timetables.
Iraqi officials, in a sign of growing confidence as violence decreases, have been pressuring the United States to agree to a specific timeline to withdraw U.S. forces. The White House said today that the timeframe being discussed would not be “an arbitrary date for withdrawal.”
Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki talked about the timing issue as part of discussions over a broader security agreement to keep American troops in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires on Dec. 31.
The White House says the two leaders, in a conversation on Thursday, agreed that the accord should include “a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals, such as the resumption of Iraqi security control in their cities and provinces and the further reduction of U.S. combat forces from Iraq.”
“despite President Bush’s once-inflexible opposition to talking about deadlines and timetables”
He was opposed to talking about deadlines and timetables IMPOSED BY AMERICAN POLITICAL OPPONENTS rather than those established by request of the Iraqis and in response to the actual situation.
how striking that this past week, McCain, Bush, Petrus & now Maliki have all moved to the positions Obama has held on Iraq & Afghanistan
as the Iraqi leader said today:
“Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic. Artificially prolonging the tenure of US troops in Iraq would cause problems.”
I think the big differance, as Katherine states, is that instead of America bailing out on Iraq this is an Iraq time table. If we had not had the surge (which Obama called a failure on his website up to this week) we would not have the current stability to make a with- drawl Feasible . McCain wanted a surge for a long time. In terms of Iraq strategy McCain has been way ahead of the curve.
Looks like Maliki supports Obama’s plan. Oops!