Iraqi's Are Simple

Not that you could read it in US newspapers, but Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki said he was in favor of the US pulling troops out of Iraq in the near future.

SPIEGEL: How short-term? Are you hoping for a new agreement before the end of the Bush administration?

Maliki: So far the Americans have had trouble agreeing to a concrete timetable for withdrawal, because they feel it would appear tantamount to an admission of defeat. But that isn't the case at all. If we come to an agreement, it is not evidence of a defeat, but of a victory, of a severe blow we have inflicted on al-Qaida and the militias.

The Bush administration immediately said this was probably a mistranslation. But der Spiegle says no, they stand by their story and, in fact, the interpreter was al Maliki's, not Der Spiegel's.

But then, al Maliki stepped back from his comments about wanting the USA to pull troops out of his country. It seems he got a phone call from the White House explaining that he (Maliki) got his talking points wrong. The White House explained to al Maliki how his comments were being interpreted in the USA. Dumb 'Mericans thought al Maliki actually wanted the US to pull troops out of Iraq.

Scott M. Stanzel, a White House spokesman with President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., said that embassy officials explained to the Iraqis how the interview in Der Spiegel was being interpreted, given that it came just a day after the two governments announced an agreement over American troops.

“The Iraqis were not aware and wanted to correct it,” he said.

al Maliki doesn't seem to understand that the Bush administration does not believe in timetables. Rather, GW believes in "time horizons".

The latest is this:

Al-Dabbagh said the government did not endorse a fixed date, but hoped American combat units could be out of Iraq sometime in 2010. That timeframe falls within the 16-month withdrawal plan proposed by Obama, who arrived in Iraq earlier in the day as part of a congressional fact-finding team.

OK, so no fixed date, as long as you are out in 16 months or so, like Barack Obama proposes.

I wonder if al Maliki understands what his latest statement means? Will he get another phone call from GW explaining how Maliki's comment is being interpreted?