Iraqi PM Maliki: Don’t Stop Troop Drawdown
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Iraq, Military, The World, War
Whether he’s emboldened by his “victory” against Sadr’s militias or a host of other reasons we could only guess at, Nouri al-Maliki wants the U.S. to continue to draw down their troops.
I’ll repeat that…the prime minister of Iraq wants U.S. troops to continue to leave his country.
Petraeus wants the U.S. to complete by the end of July the withdrawal of the 20,000 troops that were sent to Iraq last year, leaving about 140,000 in the country. Beyond that, the general proposed a 45-day evaluation period to be followed by an indefinite period of assessment before any further pullouts.Al-Maliki, however, has said he disagrees with that decision.
The prime minister told Bush during a 20-minute telephone conversation on Wednesday that Iraqi security forces are capable of carrying out their duties and U.S. troops should be pulled out as the situation permits, according to a senior government adviser who sat in on the phone conversation. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the confidential details.
I’m sure how much clearer it can be.
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 and is filed under Iraq, Military, The World, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 10th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
If our political leaders don’t care what Americans think of the war, it hardly seems like they’re going to care much about what Iraqis think of it.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
As the situation permits.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Addendum:
McQ at QandO says it this way:
Did the AP reporter actually hear the government spokesman, or Maliki himself say the word “disagree?” Or did he hear, “that Iraqi security forces are capable of carrying out their duties and U.S. troops should be pulled out as the situation permits” and interpreted that as a disagreement? or does he simply want the audience to percieve a rift between American forces and the Iraqi government, so as to promote his own anti-war political bias? It’s not so clear.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I think the story is pretty clear. Maliki is opposed to the drawdown being halted by this 45 day pause.
But if you wan to do some digging and find some quotes that dispute this, go right ahead.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Maliki is simply playing politics …. he can’t afford for the US to leave, he knows the US won’t leave, but atleast he is on the record asking for it so he can get some political mileage out of it domestically.