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July 8, 2008 - 8:48pm.
 U.S. soldiers on the ground in Iraq (AP Photo) Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces. The comments by Mouwaffak al-Rubaie were the strongest yet by an Iraqi official about the deal now under negotiation with U.S. officials. They came a day after Iraq's prime minister first said publicly that he expects the pending troop deal with the United States to have some type of timetable for withdrawal. President Bush has said he opposes a timetable. The White House said Monday it did not believe Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was proposing a rigid timeline for U.S. troop withdrawals. U.S. officials had no immediate comment Tuesday on al-Rubaie's statement. Al-Rubaie spoke to reporters after briefing Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf on the progress of the government's security efforts and the talks. "Our stance in the negotiations underway with the American side will be strong ... We will not accept any memorandum of understanding that doesn't have specific dates to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq," al-Rubaie said. He provided no details. But Ali al-Adeeb, a Shiite lawmaker and a prominent official in the prime minister's party, told The Associated Press that Iraq was linking the timetable proposal to the ongoing handover of various provinces to Iraqi control. The Iraqi proposal stipulates that, once Iraqi forces have resumed security responsibility in all 18 of Iraq's provinces, U.S.-led forces would then withdraw from all cities in the country. After that, the country's security situation would be reviewed every six months, for three to five years, to decide when U.S.-led troops would pull out entirely, al-Adeeb said. So far, the United States has handed control of nine of 18 provinces to Iraqi officials. "This is what the Iraqi people want, the parliament and other Iraqi leaders," said al-Adeeb. The proposal, as outlined by al-Adeeb, is phrased in a way that would allow Iraqi officials to tell the Iraqi public that it includes a specific timetable and dates for a U.S. withdrawal. However, it also would provide the United States some flexibility on timing because the dates of the provincial handovers are not set. Some type of troop status agreement between the United States and Iraq is needed to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year's end. Iraq's government has felt increasingly confident in recent weeks about its authority and the country's improved stability. Iraqi officials have sharpened their public stance in the negotiations considerably in just the last few days. Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level in four years. The change has been driven by the 2007 buildup of American forces, the Sunni tribal revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and crackdowns against Shiite militias and Sunni extremists. In northern Baghdad Tuesday, guards opened fire, wounding 13 people when a crowd seeking aid payments for the poor, widows, orphans and disabled people became unruly, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said a soldier had died from injuries sustained when a roadside bomb hit a troop convoy in Baghdad. The U.S. military says five other soldiers were wounded in Tuesday's attack in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amiriyah. ___________ Associated Press reporters Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Abdul-Hussein al-Obeidi in Najaf contributed to this report. Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press
Capitol Hill Blue's columnists, blogs and reader comments Capitol Hill Blue is an independent, non-partisan news site that belongs to no political party and subscribes to no political or philosophical point-of-view. Our columnists are welcome to their opinions but readers should understand that their views do not necessarily reflect the editorial policies of this web site. We also welcome comments to selected opinion columns and in our popular ReaderRant discussion forum. Please remember, however, that we believe in civility on this web site and comments may be reviewed, moderated or removed if we feel they contain obscenities, racism, bigotry, anti-Semitic remarks or attack other posters. Our goal is reasoned discussion on issues facing this nation and we do not feel that goal is served by personal attacks and by seeing how many cute adjectives you can attach to an elected official or politician's name. Copyright © 2008 Capitol Hill Blue
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The majority of Americans
Submitted by Direct Democracy on July 9, 2008 - 12:15am.The majority of Americans and the majority of Iraqis agree that US forces should leave Iraq.
At what point do the bells and whistles start going off to indicate that the system isn't working?
FREE AMERICA
DIRECT DEMOCRACY
Im starting to have alot
Submitted by adamrussell on July 9, 2008 - 2:27am.Im starting to have alot more respect for the Iraqi government. I thought they were a rubberstamp puppet regime, but perhaps I was wrong. Good for them standing up for themselves.
First of all friends and
Submitted by bryan mcclellan on July 9, 2008 - 2:30am.First of all friends and neighbors ,
should we not have the right too,
get to know the deal makers ?
We have not the right to HONOR our war dead.
Active duty personnel are directed to be in civvies whens't among the general population, when, and wherever possible.
That tells us all we need to know. Except for one final query.
Is it direction by intent or is it that we are this lazy?
Hmmmm, You don't suppose the
Submitted by staunchdem on July 9, 2008 - 2:37am.Hmmmm,
You don't suppose the Iraq situation could magically improve so much that by October or so the chimp might actually announce his new policy to begin some sort of withdrawal?
Forgive me but I don't trust these guys and they're a bit too silent on this even though it's been out there for a couple of days.
Might even help the Repugs better than another terrorist incident.
Color me jaded if you will and I hate to think like this but the last seven years have kind of freaked me out.
Maybe it is simply step one
Submitted by Sandra Price on July 9, 2008 - 6:34am.Maybe it is simply step one for our going into Iran. I heard this morning on the news that it is Cheney who is pushing a war with Iran and supposedly Bush is silent even to him. Every rotten thing Bush has done is coming home to roost. I will be glad to see them all leave the White House in disgrace. We all must learn what happens when our government gives too much authority to anyone in the White House.
Violence in Iraq has fallen
Submitted by woody188 on July 9, 2008 - 8:28am.Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level in four years. The change has been driven by the 2007 buildup of American forces, the Sunni tribal revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and crackdowns against Shiite militias and Sunni extremists.
Again no mention of the Iranian negotiated cease-fire between al-Maliki and al-Sadr. Out of sight, out of mind. Perfect example of how our media distorts reality by simply not reporting everything.
Might as well have said violence stopped the violence, not some meetings and agreements. Peace through strength. War is peace.
I don't expect US forces will ever leave Iraq. We built at least 4 permanent bases to project our power into Iran, Syria, and any other country in the area that would dare defy our oil plans. Bush wouldn't let that go, nor would Israel allow that to happen. No puppet regime is going to tell the Zionists what to do.
Mossad would pull another false flag operation and blame "the toilet" or "the base" before allowing the USA to leave.
Like McCain said, even if it takes 100 years.
We have obviously worn out
Submitted by Flapsaddle on July 9, 2008 - 9:16am.We have obviously worn out our welcome even with those who may have welcomed our initial presence to rid them of a tyrant. The party's over! It's time to leave before the reluctant hosts of the cake-walk and flower-strewing party get really angry.
Start packing the heavy equipment for return to CONUS, and start decreasing our troop profile. It's their country, so let the Iraqis run it from now on.
Most sincerely,
T. J. Flapsaddle
an american general in Iraq
Submitted by Timr on July 9, 2008 - 1:05pm.an american general in Iraq says troops can leave in 2009. So. The Iraqi puppets have somewhat cut their strings, and today the WH says in response-paraphrase-al-Malaki does not mean what he is saying of course, we have talked with him before and have told him what to say. We will stay just as long as Big Oil needs us to stay, and not a moment longer
The quickest way for the
Submitted by Hoosier_CowBoy on July 9, 2008 - 2:25pm.The quickest way for the Iraqis to force Coalition withdrawal is to start asking for payment in Euros.