Well, irony of ironies - Bush’s planned endgame in Iraq has come unglued because the Iraqi mouse roared! tank

US and Iraqi negotiators have abandoned the agreement that would have implemented a Bush/Cheney vision of long term US military occupation in the Middle East - an agreement that would have tied the hands of Bush’s successor without so much as a yea or nay from the Senate.

Yeah, Bush found a way to skirt the will of Americans and Congress but he ran smack into a a politician who does represent his electorate - Nouri al-Maliki!

For years, Bush has repeatedly resisted a troop withdrawal timetable but, last week, the Iraqi Prime Minister demanded one!

The fallback agreement will permit US military ops to continue beyond the expiration of the UN mandate at the end of the year but it falls far short of the status-of-forces agreements that keep US troops stationed in S. Korea and Japan. Since it’s likely to cover only 2009, al-Maliki is reported to be touting it as an outline for “Americans leaving Iraq” rather than a specification of the conditions under which the US will continue to occupy his country.

Ah, sweet irony - of course, John McCain will declare victory so we can expedite troop withdrawals! Never mind that the troops will be posted to the Pakistan/Afghanistan theater where more Gis died in the past couple of months than in Iraq. Never mind Obama’s plan or the Iraqi mouse - it‘s all because the surge worked, right?!

Hoo-Ahh!

BTW: here’s what Obama has to say about Iraq today - label it policy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/us/politics/15text-obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin