Bush Got Punked

In case anyone hasn't been paying attention to the details, the UN mandate that makes it sort-of legal for the US to be in Iraq runs out in December and will not be renewed. So Bush has been in talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki for the US to stay there indefinitely. Even though he denies wanting to stay there indefinitely. I wonder if those 18 permanent military bases he wants seem a bit inappropriate? Bush, being the arrogant jerk he is also does not think this needs to go before Congress, even though the Constitution very specifically says Congress must affirm any and all treaties with foreign countries. What does Bush care about the Constitution anyway, it's not like he swore an oath to God to protect it against all enemies foreign and domestic, or anything serious like that.

Well, it so happens that Maliki announced today that he wants the US to pull out, or at least set a timetable for withdrawal, because he doesn't want the US to stay there. The Times Online has the story:

Iraq said for the first time yesterday that it wanted to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from its territory.

President Bush has long resisted a schedule for pulling his 145,000 soldiers out, arguing that it would play into the hands of insurgents. Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia Prime Minister, who boasted last week that he had crushed terrorism in the country, suggested that it was time to start setting time-lines.

This would be laugh-out-loud funny if there weren't so many dead Iraqis and Americans lying around. The article goes on to say:

The Iraqi parliament has bridled at pushing through such a binding deal with the outgoing and unpopular Bush Administration, saying that the negotiations have been secretive and could undermine Iraq’s sovereignty. “I don’t know anything about this agreement and neither does parliament,” said Ezzedine Dawla, a Sunni MP. “We’re going to pass something we don’t know anything about.”

Basically, the Iraqis don't like us, go figure. Kill a million of their people and they take it personally. Also, they think we are trying to steal their oil, probably because we are. Thing is, oil is the only thing they have and they don't want it stolen. Ungrateful bastards. Then there is the Pentagon's response:

US snubs Maliki pullout timetable

WASHINGTON: In a rebuff to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki, the Pentagon said yesterday that any timetable for a US withdrawal from Iraq would depend on conditions on the ground there.

After all this time of Bush saying how a timetable for withdrawal would only help the terrorists they couldn't very well agree with Maliki, now could they? Besides, who will protect the Western Oil Companies while they are stealing the Iraqi oil if US troops aren't there? But then, Bush has also been saying all along that we would leave whenever the Iraqis asked us to. Oooops, Maliki just stuck it to Bush. Poor guy, things just don't seem to be going his way these days.

But of course, we all knew Bush didn't really mean it when he said we would leave if they asked, any more than he meant that pesky oath about the Constitution.