EXCLUSIVE: Maliki Suggests Bush Pushed To Extend U.S. Presence In Iraq To Help McCain
EXCLUSIVE: Maliki Suggests Bush Pushed To Extend U.S. Presence In Iraq To Help McCain
Last July, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said U.S. troops should be out of Iraq “as soon as possible” and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) withdrawal plan. Obama “talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” Maliki told Der Spiegel magazine.
Days later, as Obama wrapped up meetings with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh reiterated his government’s stance, saying “the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal.”
Negotiating the post-UN mandate security agreement with Iraq, Bush argued for more time and both sides ultimately agreed that all U.S. troops would be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, not 2010, even though Bush has said previously that “if they were to say, leave, we would leave.”
Why did Bush go back on his word? A source tells ThinkProgress that White House communications staff were concerned that Maliki’s endorsement of the 2010 time line would damage Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign. Indeed, during an interview with Iraqi television last week (according to an Open Source Center translation), Maliki suggested that the U.S. presidential elections played a role:
Actually, the final date was really the end of 2010 and the period between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the [U.S] domestic situation so it will not be said to the end of 2010 followed by one year for withdrawal but the end of 2011 as a final date.
In fact, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said that as part of the security agreement, Bush wanted U.S. troops to stay in Iraq even longer. “It was a U.S. proposal for the date which is 2015, and an Iraqi one which is 2010, then we agreed to make it 2011,” Talabani said.
But by endorsing Obama’s time line, Maliki indirectly slighted McCain, who has consistently and strenuously argued against setting a withdrawal date and has even said he wouldn’t mind having U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years. But Maliki’s new position has left McCain scrambling, first saying its “a pretty good timetable,” but then denying he used “the word timetable” and later settling on “anything is good.”
Despite Bush’s constant refrain that commanders, not politics, will decide the course in Iraq, it seems that trying to help his party retain the White House is more important.
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Is anyone actually surpised by this?
Republicans cannot win on their own merits. Cheating is all they have left.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 amMcBush and McChimpy: Peas in a pod.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 amA source tells ThinkProgress that White House communications staff were concerned that Maliki’s endorsement of the 2010 time line would damage Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign.
No more so than McCain and Palin have damaged their own campaign by lying, spinning, and continuing to represent the greedy corporations...
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:19 amObama really needs to use that picture in future ads.
Seriously.
PEACE
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:20 amBush wanted to help McSame. How nice. Bush must be the worst president in American history. He has created such a mess that it will take 20 years to recover. John McCain will just continue to channel Bush. Let's elect Obama.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:21 amspencers mom Says: Obama really needs to use that picture in future ads.
LOL!
Aside from McCain's freaky grimace scaring the bejeezus out of young children, the two of them look like the cojoined twins - sharing one pea-sized brain - that they really are. :)
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:24 amOle chipmunk cheeks says that anything is good. Even not being a fan of McCain it is embarrassing to watch him struggle to get through a paragraph without flubbing it.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:25 amAnyone want to start a betting pool on how many posts before a troll posts that debunked New York Post article about Obama from last week?
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:26 amsatirev Says:
What’s far more disgusting and immoral is that Bush would “play politics” with the lives of our soldiers...
What's new?
THE GOP: Playing politics with the lives of our soldiers since Sept. 11, 2001.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:29 amDon't kid yourselves, the ultimate goal is controlling Iraqi oil for Chevron, et al.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 amBush using the lives of our soldiers for political points?!??!?!
NAW!!!!
NEVER!!!
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:49 amCaption Contest:
Bush "Lends McCain a Hand" at GOP Fundraiser
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:50 amAt a recent fundraiser for the McCain campaign, George Bush reportedly gave McCain an under-the-table hand job. McCain was overheard whispering to the President during the act, "Wow, first hand experience with Executive Pivilege is better than I thought it would beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Bush reportedly replied, "Be cool Johnny, try to keep a straight face like me."
Considering that we invaded Iraq for political reasons so that Bush could be a War president, is it really any wonder that Bush would want to stay in Iraq for political reasons? Bush cares so little for human life that he would commit troops so that he could play at being a president.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:08 amThe gop has been playing poliics with soldiers lives since Nixon used Viet Nam to get re-elected. Nothing is new under the sun....
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 amA Patriot Acting Says
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:50 am
_______________________________________________________
I think you nailed it. And I blame you for all the people who came running to my desk to find out why I was laughing so hard.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 amAnd the capture of Osama bin Laden before the election? Black ops are going on in the regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan now. There was never any question in my mind that Bu$hit was using the armed forces for political gain. Perhaps not showing pictures of soldiers killed during these illegal operations are for his benefit. He's the one who would appreciate "out of sight, out of mind."
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 amI think it's absolutely obscene that the primary reason we are there -- apparently -- is so our leaders can talk about how we're "winning".
I can see future slogans now -- "proudly winning in Iraq since 2003" -- like it's a carpeting business or something.
And that if McCain/Palin got in, they would keep their "winning in Iraq" scenario going for as long as possible to wring every last drop of political capital out of it, until there's nobody left who can be fooled anymore.
The fact that we're dealing with human beings doesn't even matter. Every American should be outraged.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 amCaption: "McBush and the Chymp are in luv"
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:18 amThey said last night on CNN if Obama were white he would have a commanding lead over McStain.
Racism is alive in well in the Fascist States of America.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:22 amMcCain/Palin = Walter/Donny from "The Big Lebowski"
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:29 amOsama Bin Laden is probably playing golf right now with Daddy Bin Bush I in Dubai. (Isn't there a tournament sponsored by the Carlyle Group, KBR, BlackWater USA, Bechtel, Haliburton etc.)---
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:33 amVote Pallid/McStain: RIP USA~
(their slogan should say "Country Club First!" not "Country First")
What a couple of sheisters!
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:43 am.
100 years of car bombs does not a Japan or Germany make...!
.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 amMcSame and Dubya = kill Americans and Iraqis for political fodder. That is what we are dealing with...murdering scumbags.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:54 amTREASON!!
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 amIsn't this the same party that was just a week or so ago accusing Barack Obama of interfering with troop withdrawal during his trip to Iraq???
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:06 pmIf I had a family member who was killed in Iraq, I'd be furious. No, I'd be more than furious, because I didn't have a family member in Iraq at all, and I'm still furious about this.
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:29 pmWe have met the enemy and he is... Bush.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 pmI wish I shared your optimism that truth will win out over race baiting and lies.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:02 am