On July 8, 2008 Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki demanded a US troop withdrawal timetable. In a story published on July 7th by Reuters…
"Today, we are looking at the necessity of terminating the foreign presence on Iraqi lands and restoring full sovereignty," Maliki told Arab ambassadors in blunt remarks during an official visit to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.
"One of the two basic topics is either to have a memorandum of understanding for the departure of forces or a memorandum of understanding to set a timetable for the presence of the forces, so that we know (their presence) will end in a specific time."
The next day, on July 9th, 2008 The Associated Press published a follow up story on the subject.
"Our stance in the negotiations under way with the American side will be strong," said Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, a day after the country's prime minister first publicly said he expects some type of timeline.
"We will not accept any memorandum of understanding that doesn't have specific dates to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq," al-Rubaie told reporters.
Later that day The White House released a statement that said it did not believe Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was proposing a timeline for US troop withdrawals. After reading the explicit statements from Prime Minister and later his National Security adviser, it’s extraordinary that George W. Bush couldn’t comprehend the clear message expressed in their statements. But apparently he couldn’t.
On Friday, July 18, 2008 The White House started using the phrase “time horizons” to discuss our departure from Iraq. No one has ever heard that phrase before and it has no meaning. It’s obvious the Iraqi government wasn’t familiar with it either. You can almost hear the Prime Minister saying to one of his aides, “What part of go home doesn’t that dim bulb get?”
So on Saturday, July 19, once again the Prime Minister of Iraq issued another statement to George W. Bush. This time he used small words, simple words, that shouldn’t exceed the comprehension skills of a fifth grader. He said, “The U.S. troops should leave Iraq as soon as possible, prolonging their stay would cause problems.”
That should be clear enough, even to George W. Bush, who had already started building 58 permanent U.S. military bases. That should be clear enough, even to John McCain, who had said he wanted the U.S. military to stay in Iraq for 100+ years. That should answer the question about McCain’s judgment in foreign affairs.
In case it doesn’t, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also said, “Presidential candidate Barack Obama's suggestion of 16 months is the right timeframe for a withdrawal."
So after spending year after year making one incorrect assessment after another about the war in Iraq, it comes down to this defining moment for John McCain. After John McCain has made volumes of claims about Iraq that turned out to not only be wrong, often ludicrous, he now finds his latest claims are wrong. His assessments are absolutely wrong. His plans are absolutely wrong. His judgment is absolutely wrong.
The democratically elected Prime Minister of Iraq said, “Presidential candidate Barack Obama's suggestion of 16 months is the right timeframe for a withdrawal." He didn’t say George W. Bush was right. He didn’t say John McCain was right. He said Barack Obama had the best judgment. He didn’t say a word about “surrender”. He just said we’ve overstayed our welcome, and since the hints about leaving weren’t working, his blunt, precise choice of words, “The U.S. troops should leave Iraq as soon as possible, prolonging their stay would cause problems.” should leave little doubt what he means.
There’s no doubt this is a catastrophe for John McCain’s campaign. His judgment was a strength he hoped to sell to America. Now his judgment is a real, bona fide campaign issue. But it’s his bad judgment that has been hung out for all to see. There’s also no doubt this is a very embarrassing development for John McCain. Not only has his bad judgment been put on display, the Prime Minister of Iraq actually specifically named his opponent as the American with the best judgment of what to do in Iraq.
John McCain has no one to blame but himself. He invested all his campaign hopes in his sheep-like following of George W. Bush. That turned out to be a catastrophe for him. That also illustrates the bad judgment of John McCain. Putting his trust in George W. Bush, and casting his allegiance to the worst president in our nation’s history wasn’t a wise decision. Now John McCain has to suffer the consequences, not for Bush’s failure, but for his own colossal display of bad judgment.
