Sorry for the "breaking" but this is just huge news:
Iraq's government welcomed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday with word that it apparently shares his hope that U.S. combat forces could leave by 2010.
The statement by Iraq's government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, followed talks between Obama and Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki — who has struggled for days to clarify Iraq's position on a possible timetable for a U.S. troop pullout.
Al-Dabbagh said the government did not endorse a fixed date, but hoped American combat units could be out of Iraq sometime in 2010. That timeframe falls within the 16-month withdrawal plan proposed by Obama, who arrived in Iraq earlier in the day as part of a congressional fact-finding team.
"We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq," al-Dabbagh told reporters, noting that any withdrawal plan was subject to change if the level of violence kicks up again.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
I guess George Bush has no choice but to accept a "time horizon" (yes a timeline) despite he and McCain's attempts to blackmail Iraqis into giving up their oil to Exxon et al for the next "hundred years."
Yes John McCain's "hundred years" comment seems to have instilled some spine into the Iraqis: it appears that the Era of Cowboy Diplomacy is indeed at an end thanks to John McCain.
Here is the other diary on this important news.
Update: Slinkerwink has the video IN ENGLISH here.