Did this stand out to anyone watching Rachel's show tonight? Is Rachel reading this right?
Maliki: The final date was really the end of 2010 and the period between the end of 2010 and 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the domestic situation [in the US] so it will not be said to the 2010 followed by one year for withdrawal but by the end of 2011 as a final date.
Rachel reiterates:
In essence he is saying that when he was negotiating with to pick a withdrawal date for our troops to come home they initially settled on about 15 months form now, the end of 2010, but then according to opensource.gov, Prime Minister Maliki says the Bush Administration came back and said they'd actually like our troops to stay in Iraq an extra year. Through 2011. Why an extra year? Quote: Due to political circumstances related to the US domestic situation.
So the Prime Minister of Iraq says on tape that, according to our own government's translation, the Bush Administration wants to prolong the war in Iraq an extra year for our domestic politics.
video below
The White House responded to Rachel's inquiry:
You've heard us speak about different kinds of timelines or aspirational goals that may be acceptable; we do not have anything to announce on that... what we're focused on is getting a good agreement, not on getting an agreement by a particular date... stepping back, what we're really pleased about is the fact that we're having these discussions with a sovereign democratically elected country. Any conditions on troops will be based on the conditions on the ground in Iraq. That has always been our position; it continues to be out position.
In other words, they did not deny what Maliki said. Now, I wouldn't be surprised at the truth of this. I have always figured the Bush Administration has used to the fullest terror threats, war etc to try to cement their political power. But I am a bit surprised this is out there like this so casually.
Does Rachel have the correct read on this? Because if so, this is something that should be checked out. This is insane.