Oh noes! Look at who's trying to "pull the rug" out from under the Iraq war effort now! Republican Senators like Lindsay Graham and Saxby Chambliss, that's who! They've just returned from one of their holiday shopping trips to Mesopotamia, and they've returned, seemingly possessed of the belief that the Iraqis need to get cracking on "political progress." But I thought that the Surge was supposed to make that happen!
In what the AP calls "stern warnings," Graham and Chambliss have put Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the hot seat. Did they vow to "[pull] political or financial support for his government?" No! But they vowed to "consider" doing so! Sometime in January, anyway. The holidays can be so busy, after all--that's something the Iraq government can understand.
"I do expect them to deliver," Graham, R-S.C., said in a phone interview upon returning from a Thanksgiving trip to Iraq. "What would happen for me if there's no progress on reconciliation after the first of the year, I would be looking at ways to invest our money into groups that can deliver."
Well, don't wait too long to find alternative investments, Lindsay! After all, Hunt Oil chief executive and president Ray L. Hunt, as a close pal of the president's and a member of Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, has a front row seat for all the goings-on with regard to the Iraq government - and he's betting his money that we bomb in Baghdad.
Chambliss was similar in offering flinty pronouncements that made it sound like he's been living under a rock for the past ten years:
"If we don't see positive results by the end of the year I think you'll probably see a strong message coming out of Congress calling for a change in administration," he said in a conference call with reporters.
Another "change in administration?" Sounds like al-Maliki had better start getting his spider-hole stocked!
Graham added, "There are no more excuses as far as I'm concerned not to achieve some benchmark success," seemingly unaware that the Bush Administration gave up on meaningful benchmarks a long time ago.