"Stay The Course" in Iraq (Or Leave?)

In a policy U-Turn, last Thursday, the U.S. Whitehouse endorsed a draft agreement with the Iraqi government that would remove "combat troops from Iraqi cities by next June and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011." Both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters that the 2011 date was an "aspirational timeline."



The Iraqis seem quite comfortable with the U.S. pulling out ... Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki explicitly disagreed with their characterization of the time frame as "aspirational." In a speech to tribal leaders yesterday, Maliki said that the U.S. and Iraq have reached an agreement on "a fixed date" for withdrawal. "No pact or an agreement should be set without being based on full sovereignty, national common interests, and no foreign soldier should remain on Iraqi land, and there should be a specific deadline and it should not be open," Maliki said, adding that "an open time limit is not acceptable in any security deal that governs the presence of the international forces." While Maliki claims the U.S. has agreed to his demand, the White House said "no final deal had been reached."