"When They Ask Us To Leave, We'll Go"

.... Those are the President's words ... we'll see if he sticks to them.

I'm sure you have heard, but the US and the Iraqi Parliment are in negotiations over what our long-term presence will be (since the UN chartered operation expires at the end of the year - not sure what the significance of the UN thing is or how it came about, though). Anyway, in the midst of the negotiations PM Maliki and his Security Advisor both stated today that they want us out - or at least an agreement to a timetable to get out - in the final agreement. This is big stuff - it shows agreement w/ Obama, the Dems, and a majority of the American people that the US should start to withdrawl and makes it hard for McCain to argue that we should stay there a long time (100years or whatever).

On the flip side, we haven't taken seriously much of what the Iraqi Gov't has said in the past ... and there's speculation (at least Pat Buchanan) that this is an internal political move on Maliki's part b/c Sadr wants the US out and Maliki needs to "cut him off at the pass" so to speak. In any event it's very hard for us to argue that there is an emerging sovereign government over there and yet ignore their request for our withdrawl.