A Surreal Moment in Iraq

It's become pretty apparent both from Prime Minister Maliki's statements over the past few days as well as through a slew of other assertions from senior Iraqi officials that they are comfortable with the idea of a timeline for the withdrawal of American combat forces by sometime in 2010 and a move towards a much more limited set of missions and presence.

Perhaps one of the most surreal things about this situation is that the Iraqis seem to have come to this conclusion before either John McCain or George Bush. For years, the administration's policy has been "When they stand up, we'll stand down." Well guess what. The Iraqis are standing up and so far at least Bush and McCain's response seems to be: "you're not ready yet." In fact, today when asked about Maliki's call for a timetable, McCain dismissed Maliki's concerns saying "I know what they want."

In another ironic twist, since 2005 most Democrats have pushed for an American withdrawal or at the very least a threat of withdrawal to force Iraqis to take responsibility for their country and make the hard choices that could bring about political reconciliation. Today the reverse is true. Rather than the U.S. having to pressure the Iraqi government, it is in fact the Maliki government that is trying to put political pressure on the Bush Administration to get American troops to leave.

This is absolutely crazy. After waiting for Iraqis to assert themselves for five years we should be seizing this moment. This is in fact in many ways one of the key elements for "success" -- an Iraqi government eager to step up and take control of its own country. I still can't understand why McCain wouldn't welcome this statement but here are some theories:

A. For years now Iraq diehards like McCain and Bush have had no sense of what victory is in Iraq or how to define it. Now that they are staring it in the face they don't believe it. They have fought for so long to keep American troops there, that they see any withdrawal as defeat -- even if it isn't and even if it comes at the request of the Iraqi government.

B. McCain really and truly wants permanent bases in Iraq and wants to use Iraq as a base from which to exert influence across the Middle East. This is where many of the Neocons are and I wouldn't be surprised if McCain agreed. Of course it is a horrifically bad idea and would only serve as a propaganda tool for Al Qaeda and create animosity across the Arab World.

C. McCain has worked himself into such a box throughout the campaign that he has no choice but to keep calling for our troops to stay and to present the Obama position as "surrender." So he's stuck taking this ridiculous political position because he has no other choice.

Either way you look at it. If you step back for a second, what we have here is the Iraqis trying to declare victory and offer Bush and McCain an "honorable" and responsible way out. Bush and McCain's response? No thank you.

Comments

[Garvagh]

Bravo! In fact, most Iraqis have called for the withdrawal of all US combat forces, ASAP, for the past year and even longer! John "Bomb Iran" apparently lacks any understanding of the strategic realities that obtain in the Middle East, and he certainly fails to grasp the fact that achieving stability in Afghanistan is impossible without substanial assistance from Iran.

[YesWeCanada]

Success in Iraq for the GOP = extracting all of the oil by the hands of the masters Big Oil. 50 to 100 years is the expected timeline. US security and economic issues are of little concern to them.

[SamEllison]

B. Imperialism, that is where they are at, in a nut shell.

[knighthowl]

I think the real problem Bush and McCain have is that we never succeeded in stealing Iraq's oil. (Remember the claims that somehow IRAQ's oil would pay for OUR war.) How they thought we could do that has always escaped me, but now it looks impossible - even though some of their buds in the major oil companies have gotten some contracts. Sadly, at a very high price for the rest of us.

[jfor]

Success in Iraq means the end of McCain and the neocons. The better things get in Iraq the worse things get for McCain. Such is life. So what Will McCain do? Will he embrace the end of the war and the withdrawel of our troops and then lose the election very badly? Or will he insist that it is not over, the troops must remain forever and then lose the election badly.

[BillZBubb]

The neo-cons never want to leave Iraq. Bases in Iraq are central to their plan to control the region. They'll fight tooth and nail to keep substantial US resources there. Since the right wing always has flunkies like Pet-raeus around, they can make up excuses for years and years.

Iraq has been a major loss for the US. We've lost too many people, too much borrowed money, our good name, our influence in the region and we've strengthened Iran--and it was all for nothing but Bush/neo-con lies. Hopefully, President Obama will remedy the situation by getting us fully out as soon as possible.