Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine that he backed a proposal by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months.
“U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months,” he said in an interview with Der Spiegel. “That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” he said…
“Who they choose as their president is the Americans’ business. But it’s the business of Iraqis to say what they want. And that’s where the people and the government are in general agreement: The tenure of the coalition troops in Iraq should be limited,” he said.
The interview’s publication came one day after the White House said President Bush and al-Maliki had agreed to include a “general time horizon” in talks about reducing American combat forces and transferring Iraqi security control across the country.
The Bush administration has steadfastly refused to consider a “timetable” for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
That’s a cutting-edge difference between “timetable”, “time frame” and “time horizon”. Right?
The only way we can leave Iraq is to cripple Iranian military capacity. It’s a mess now, but this could hand the Middle East to the fundamentalist. The Saudis live in constant fear of rebellion by radical Muslims. If the West fails to curb the Iranians, Israel will light off some fire crackers. And yes it’s about oil. This is the results of decades of tampering from the West, and it’s not going away. Not nearly enough blood have flowed the end this mess. I’m a cynical bastard.
#1. attacking Iran means, what, $200/barrel oil? $6/gal gas in the US? just the thing we need right now. warmongering conservatives seem to be in league with the greens to push oil prices so high that alternatives become more cost feasible.
the US presence in Iraq makes us more vulnerable to the Iranians, not less. The Iranians can ratchet up the sectarian violence if the US starts bombing, and the Iraqi government will not allow their country to be used as a staging ground for attacking their Shiite brethren across the border.
Oh, and Maliki is now saying he was “misunderstood” … I wonder how much paddling from the US Embassy it took for that to come about?
RTaylor said: “…this could hand the Middle East to the fundamentalist.”
Which fundamentalists? Sunni or Shia?
It’s a religious civil war, and they are going to have it out whether we like it or not. If Afghanistan and Pakistan don’t stabilize then a war will spread from the Indian to the Israeli borders.
A simpler strategy:
1. Get your troops out of Iraq. Seriously, prolonging it won’t help.
2. Keep your bases in Turkey and SA for the next few years. A firewall needs to be somewhere but develop a draw down plan with Arab and European partners picking up the slack.
3. Settle Afghanistan and Pakistan. That will require cooperation with your allies and Arab partners. You’d easily get international support and again draw down and replace over time.
4. Wait the bastards out. It will take 50 years but peace and development will wipe them out. That’s life.
We’re all stuck with troops there for a while, let’s at least be productive and smart about it.
We can huff and puff all we want, but we will be leaving Iraq (in a few years) and we will not be invading Iran. I don’t foresee even a strategic strike. The fear and propaganda is simply to get Iran to the negotiations table.
#3. mostly agreed, although we AFAIK, do not have any significant bases in SA any more. (Osama won that round – the infidels are no longer in the land of the Prophet.)
I would add a 5. Crash program to get the US over its pretro-dependency. Then the Middle East is about as important to the US as, say, Southeast Asia, rather than being the focus of most of our policy.
#4. bingo.
everyone knows that the Israelis cannot knock out (or even seriously damage) the Iranian nuclear program, so that exercise in the Med. was merely a demonstration that they could give it a try.
the Iranians are stonewalling, however. I imagine they are going to wait out the Bush Administration for two reasons – (1) they think they can get a better deal from Obama; and (2) to deprive the Bushies of credit for a deal, which is exactly what they did to Carter in 1980.
We will never leave, IRAN is the real target.
We will incinerate IRAN when the time comes.
If only Obama would stand by his plan.
On the article:
“about”, “we think”, “general agreement”, “general time horizon”.
When people use generalities like this, what they are really saying is:
“we don’t know”, ” we guess…”, “no one disagrees – yet”, “who knows when?”
Nothing’s changed. Nothing at all.
obama like mccain and all the other presidents are just a puppets…-and they’ll say anything to win your vote anyways..
sure..we’ll pull out, but we’ll leave “stabilizing force there” of around 10-20k+ or so…just like we have done with ever other place we’ve “freed” in the name of democracy…
we wanted a staging area right in the middle of this cluster f’k anyways -which ever way we “leave” -we actually wont..
so whats the point?
um..wake up…we’re in there under false pretense, so whatever “plans” reported are most a load of crap anyways…we’ll do the opposite..no matter which side says it.
i’d write something with more substance, but alas i just woke up and discovered i’m out of coffee…so anything i say is practically moot. (more so than usual)
-maybe i’ll come back later and address this properly.. -i’ve said enough.
-s
That’s a horrible photo, albeit Photoshopped. I know you’re not fond of W, John, but please. Where was respect for the position of president gone?
#10. the office is due respect, the man in the office has to fight to keep it. Dubya has forfeited all claims to respect.
“Where was respect for the position of president gone?”
have you been paying attention to anything going on in the last 8 years?
>> Where was respect for the position
>>of president gone?
What #12 said. And #11 too.
Christ, have you seen what Dumbya has done for the past 8 years?
His most noteworthy “achievment” has been the unending clearing of brush from his ranch. He hasn’t finished yet (after 8 years), but at least he hasn’t failed. Yet.
Everything else, he’s failed at. Without exception.
All the treasures of the earth would not bring back one lost moment.
http://www.laizjj.cn
Barack Obama and John McCain have made recent statements on US offshore oil drilling while on the US presidential campaign trail. Well, Offshore Drilling is a huge issue right now and rightly so. Between the
desire to deal with the economic mess that is being spurred by the price
of oil and the on-going longer-term concern of global warming, how do we
address all of this? Check out Obama and McCain in side-by-side videos
on clash/US Offshore Oil Drilling comparing their recent
comments on ANWR and offshore oil drilling. It is, if nothing else,
very interesting to hear their perspective.