Apparently, it's not just Murtha and a growing group of nervous Republican politicians (plus basically everyone who served under the first George Bush). It's also the Iraqis -- all three factions. (printer version).
So what now, Bush/war supporters? Who exactly are the cowardly curs who want to "cut and run" from Iraq? War heroes, military experts, the top Army general in charge of the war, this Republican veteran of the Reagan administration (whom I spoke to about this as far back as December 2003, and he was saying almost precisely what Hagel and Murtha are saying now: that Iraq can't be "won" by military means, and we need to find a way to save face and get out...) and veterans of previous Republican administrations, including Bush's father's regime?
Laura Ingraham studiously avoided the headline on her show this morning ... Michelle Malkin is too busy trying to pajama sleuth who at CNN put a big old X on Dick Cheney's face ... Scott at Powerline appears to need a booking at the rubber at this point, as he relentlessly flogs the "Atta in Prague" turkey (Iraq DID do 9/11! They DID!!! They DID!!!!!) ... I can always count on my boys at Wizbang to get on a big headline ... but not today...
Despite the right's disinterest in this inconvenient piece of news, this is actually a big story, mostly because of the questions it raises about why Iraqi leaders would call for a timetable now, after having backed off it so many times before (under U.S. pressure). One answer could be Chalabi, who wants to take over the country and so would have every incentive to use shock and awe tactics to break the U.S. grip on the country. Even if all hell broke loose, Chalabi might be banking on being the only "strongman" who can put the egg back together, and he may be telegraphing as much to his former (and current?) patrons in the U.S. Sounds far fetched? Consider who else is urging the Iraqi quasi-government to push for a date certain: Iran, and more specifically, Shiite religious don Ayatollah Khameini:
Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called on visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to press for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.
On Tuesday, Khamenei also argued it was the US that was to blame for the ongoing violence in Iraq, amid efforts by Talabani to win Iranian help in combatting the fighting ravaging his country.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran holds the American government responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people and all the crimes and assassinations now being committed in Iraq," Khamenei was quoted as saying by official media.
"The presence of foreign troops is damaging for the Iraqis, and the Iraqi government could ask for their departure by proposing a timetable," Khamenei said, adding: "The US and Britain will eventually have to leave Iraq with a bitter experience."
Khamenei told Talabani, the first Iraqi head of state to visit Iran in nearly four decades, his country "would be empowered by the development, security, independence and the empowerment of Iraq". ...
Kind of reminds me of a joke I used to over-do during the run-up to war: what do you call Iraq without Saddam Hussein? Iran.
Update: National Review's The Corner posts two entries on the headline; one in which Rich Lowry dismisses the Iraqi call for a timetable as a sign of comity among the parties but not serious about withdrawal (I thought conservatives trusted "the people" to make their own decisions -- I suppose unless those people are Iraqis living on top of our oil... and a second which emphasizes the supposed stunner that the joint Iraqi communique cautioned against labeling insurgents as terrorists. Well, duh, neocons: the insurgency is against us, the "occupying foreign power." What would you expect the Iraqis to say? The Iraqis are threading the needle: they want to keep the domestic insurgents in the fold for the long run, while singling out the foreign jihadis who blow up weddings...
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
