Ouch. This should sure make the next round of negotiations between Bush and Maliki a lot of fun. The German magazine Spiegel interviewed Iraqi Prime Minister al Maliki who said that he supports Obama’s 16 month timetable approach.
“US presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months,” said al Maliki “That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.”
The Obama campaign’s Susan Rice just put out this statement crowing thanking Maliki for his support of the plan …
“Senator Obama welcomes Prime Minister Maliki’s support for a 16 month timeline for the redeployment of U.S combat brigades. This presents an important opportunity to transition to Iraqi responsibility, while restoring our military and increasing our commitment to finish the fight in Afghanistan.”
Maliki went on to say:
“Of course, this is by no means an election endorsement. Who they choose as their president is the Americans’ business,” he said. But then, apparently referring to Republican candidate John McCain’s more open-ended Iraq policy, Maliki said: “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.”
Do keep an eye out for some ‘clarifications’ of Maliki’s stance. But as much as I suspect that this is a genuine characterization of Maliki’s views, we should not discount that his willingness to say this is also a recognition of the way the winds are blowing.
