It looked like there was going to be a deal made between Iraq and the United States over keeping foreign troops in Iraq beyond the United Nations mandate. However, today there appears to be a spanner tossed in the hole when Shiite leaders announced they want an exit date of 2011.
The Iraqi parliament's biggest political bloc is calling for all American troops to leave this country by the end of 2011 as a condition for approving a new agreement extending the U.S. military presence in Iraq, a senior official said Sunday.
The United Iraqi Alliance is also insisting that Iraq have a bigger role in determining whether U.S. soldiers accused of wrongdoing are subjected to prosecution in Iraqi courts.
If the conditions are not met, "I cannot see that this agreement will see the light," said Sami al-Askeri, a Shiite parliamentarian and political adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
For many years we've been told that if the Iraqis want us to leave, we would leave. It appears that they want us to leave, regardless of how you read this.
The first reading is that the UIA actually wants to know when the United States would leave, and believes that these negotiations under severe time pressure are the best way to get it. That would mean, essentially, that we are being politely asked to leave.
The more scary reading is that, with a deal in the works, the Shiites have decided to kill the deal and force us to leave by January 1, 2009. Since we are there under the auspices of the United Nations resolutions that expire on December 31, we would be there illegally if nothing is settled by then.
But either way we are being told that we are wearing out our welcome and should walk away.
The American people can grant the wishes of the Iraqi government by voting for Barack Obama in a couple weeks. He wants to get us out as well.