Having listened to the translation of the comments by Al Maliki, I’m not hearing the endorsement of a time table. What I heard was a badly worded statement to the effect that it would be great if the situation was such that the U.S. could withdraw completely by 2010. That’s what I heard. But the statement was so badly mangled by the press covering the event, especially the German press, that it was literally rewritten to endorse Obama.
The Iraqi’s are babes in the woods when it comes to consensus politics. As for Barack Obama and his friends, it is illegal for them to attempt to engage in foreign policy discussions without the approval of the Executive branch. Obama should be impeached for attempting to undermine current U.S. foreign policy in a combat zone.
The Iraqis have been saying these kind of things for a long time. Iraqis just want to have more leverage and are taking advantage of the spotlight that Obama brought to Iraq.
“Chalabi knows American politics better than nearly every other Iraqi politician...”
I’m going to bet that Chalabi knows next to nothing about the motivations of the electorate in the great Midwest and South.
With that said, the Iraqi Gov't has not said they support Obama's position (the MSM of course have tried to spin that)....The Iraqi Gov't says that conditions on the ground matter most.....and yes, of course they would like over some time frame for U.S. combat forces to leave.....(which has been the GWB plan since day one)...