Remember this? Presnit-wit Bush and all his neo-con buddies saying over, and over, and over and over, and, you get the picture...
"When the Iraqi's can stand up, we will stand down. There will be no timetables!"
If I heard that once from someone in the Bush Administration or their "media" contingent, I heard it five thousand times. So, what happens when the Iraqi's stand UP faster than Bushie and the boyz want them to? Bushie continues to try to stand ON them to keep them down.
From CNN:
Rice arrives in Iraq to discuss U.S. troop deal
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Baghdad Thursday on an unannounced trip to Iraq, according to reporters traveling with her.
Rice said she plans to meet with top Iraqi officials, including the prime minister, on the status of negotiations to keep U.S. forces in Iraq after the expiration of a U.N. Security Council resolution later this year.
Rice said she thought it "might be useful to come out at this stage and get an update and be able to go back and brief the president" on what remains to be done.
"(It's) a very gratifying time because we're in a position where we believe we're going to be able to hand most security functions to the Iraqis," Rice said.
She flew aboard a U.S. military transport from Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey, where she spent the night following her visit to Poland.
The trip comes amid reports that U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed to a preliminary draft of an agreement on the future of U.S. troops in Iraq, a senior U.S. military official told CNN Wednesday -- although officials from the two countries seemed to be disagreeing on what the agreement will say.
Rice said reports suggesting that an agreement had been reached as "very premature."
"All of the reports and rumors and chatter, it really ought to be ignored," she said en route to the Iraqi capital. "When we have a deal, we'll have a deal."
My emphasis.
Now, I'm sure you know where all of this is headed, but let me just spell it out a bit. First, the two countries are for sure disagreeing on what the agreement will say. Because the Iraqi's have placed timetables within their agreements.
Second, the "SURGE" is working! Well, actually, al-Sadr wants the Americans out so badly that he has ordered HIS followers to stop the attacks so they will go away. However, the surge isn't working so well that the Iraqi's can actually send the US troops home by a CERTAIN DATE! Why, that would be like having a, gulp, Timetable! And we cannot, never ever have a Timetable!
How much you want to bet someone in the administration said that again? Even though the Iraqi Government is clearly setting dates and pesky timetables for the removal of American Troops from Iraq?
Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Hamood indicated earlier that the agreement included a withdrawal date of June 30, 2009, from Iraqi cities and villages. However, the U.S. official said there are no dates in the agreement, only general timeframes that would take into account conditions on the ground.
As for timelines, Rice said Thursday that the United States wants to make sure any agreement includes "what really can be done, what is feasible."
The U.S. source, though, said the June 30 date is a goal, but not set in stone.
Not a deadline, it's not a timeline," he said. "It's conditions-permitting."
The source said the plan has the approval of U.S. negotiators but has not been signed off on by President Bush. He said it could take awhile for the plan to be approved by Iraq's government.
Several U.S. officials on Wednesday said that no final agreement has been reached.
My emphasis
Yip! Just as I thought. Not only did someONE from the administration say it, but multiple neo-cons said it. One Rice and one strawman. Just about perfectly understandable for this administration, wouldn't you say?
They really hates 'em some timetables there in BushCo-Land.
All those lovely neo-con dreams of gushing oil in Iraq and gushing blood next door in Iran are beginning to turn, as usual, to the well known BushCo reverse Midas Touch where everything they touch turns from gold to shit.
Again, as usual, all they can do is spin it, lie about it and gnash their teeth in frustation of how such a good thing (in their world) could continue to go so wrong.
Guess they should have just checked the mirror. The answer was there right in front of them this whole time.
Within the last few weeks, the Iraqi Government has said that they want all combat troops out of Iraq by December 2010 and all other troops out by 2011.
Silly me. That sounds just like a timeline.
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x-posted at EENRblog.com