An offer he can’t refuse?
July 20th, 2008 at 08:18am Pat Cunningham
Â
George W. Bush and his good buddy John McCain have said on several occasions that American troops should remain in Iraq only so long as they are welcome by that country’s democratically elected government.
Hewing to that promise, at least in outward appearances, hasn’t been easy of late. Any conspicuous signs from the Iraqis that they want the Americans out have had to be tamped down.
Take, for example, the little drama that played out yesterday:
 The German magazine Der Spiegel published an interview with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in which he was said to have endorsed a proposal by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from his country within 16 months.
The magazine also quoted al-Maliki as saying that keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for any prolonged period, as McCain has suggested, “would cause problems.”
The prime minister added this: “So far the Americans have had trouble agreeing to a concrete timetable for withdrawal, because they feel it would appear tantamount to an admission of defeat. But that isn’t the case at all. If we come to an agreement, it is not evidence of a defeat, but of a victory.”
All of this created quite a stir in American political circles. As soon as Reuters moved the story on its wire, the White House apparently went into panic mode and accidentally dispatched it to all the reporters on its distribution list.
And before long, al-Maliki seemed to have found a horse’s head in his bed, courtesy of the folks who want to keep American troops in his country as long they would like, no matter what he or the Iraqi people would prefer. The offer of these troops apparently is one that the prime minister, as Vito Corleone might say, can’t refuse.
Accordingly, a spokesman for al-Maliki wasted no time in telling the world that the prime minister somehow was misunderstood by the German magazine. His words somehow were mistranslated.
Yeah, sure they were.
A pretty good account of this episode can be found on THIS Fox News blog, of all places.
UPDATE: HERE’s another interesting take.
UPDATE II: And ANOTHER (this one disputes the claim that al-Maliki was misquoted).
Entry Filed under: Nuri al-Maliki, War in Iraq, John McCain, President Bush, Barack Obama
1 Comment Add your own
1. Optimistic1 | July 20th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Gotta hand it to you, it takes major balls to call Maliki a puppet, rip him so badly for so long going as far as Schumer and others boycotting his speech in Washington, and then use his opinion to bolster the credibility of your candidates withdrawal plan. Did you see the wires light up when he backed up Obama yesterday? Looked like the 4th of July all over again. The media will absolutely bend over backwards to make Obama look good. I am not asking for special treatment for anyone, just some unbiased reporting. Thanks for showing it was able to be found on Fox this time around, that also takes guts.
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed