Pot. Kettle. Blackness?
One thing I'm sure we've all been sick and tired of is the right wing accusation that our 'talk' brings support to the terrorist. So while the topic doesn't warrant any glee, I was still happy to see al-Maliki is calling the Bush Administration on their BS
In a sign of the tense relations with Washington, he chided the US for suggesting his Government was living on “borrowed time”. Such criticism boosted Iraq’s extremists, he said, and was more a reflection of “some kind of crisis situation” in Washington after the Republicans’ midterm election losses.
I suddenly like al-Maliki a lot more than I did before. Sounds like someone who actually gives a sh*t about Iraq, unlike the puppets and dictators the right-wing are so found of putting in power.
Oh no he didn't. Did he just call out Rice for being a terrorist supporter?
Challenged on the point, Mr al-Maliki remarked acidly: “Certain officials are going through a crisis. Secretary Rice is expressing her own point of view if she thinks that the Government is on borrowed time, whether it is borrowed time for the Iraqi Government or American Administration. I don’t think we are on borrowed time.”
He added: “I wish that we could receive strong messages of support from the US so we don’t give some boost to the terrorists and make them feel that they might have achieved success. I believe that such statements give moral boosts to the terrorists and push them towards making an extra effort and making them believe that they have defeated the American Administration, but I can tell you that they haven’t defeated the Iraqi Government.”
I guess he did. Suddenly I'm liking this al-Maliki guy (a bit.) Bush admin tries to pin Iraq's failures on him and his government, and al-Maliki easily lobs it back:
Challenged on the point, Mr al-Maliki remarked acidly: “Certain officials are going through a crisis. Secretary Rice is expressing her own point of view if she thinks that the Government is on borrowed time, whether it is borrowed time for the Iraqi Government or American Administration. I don’t think we are on borrowed time.”
I'm sure the right-wing blogs tomorrow will pouncing on this like Pavlov's dogs, saying '..how dare he not suck up to the Bush admin, after all we've done for him...' But we know better. And the Bush admin knows that they are completely to blame for the f*cked-up mess in Iraq, it's time for them to admit it so we can all move forward.
The full article is interesting (and relatively brief.) al-Maliki is proposing that the US give the Iraqi military more weapons, and if we do that, the Iraqi army will be able to 'step up.'
Asked how long Iraq would require US troops, Mr al-Maliki said: “If we succeed in implementing the agreement between us to speed up the equipping and providing weapons to our military forces, I think that within three to six months our need for American troops will dramatically go down. That is on condition that there are real, strong efforts to support our military forces and equipping and arming them.”
So is there anyone in the world grateful for Bush's admin, other than the terrorists?