Bush Betrays McCain on Iraq

When Wolf Blitzer asked John McCain today if McCain supported Bush's proposed deal to remove U.S. troops from Iraq in 3 years, McCain sneered at Blitzer and repeated "it's conditions-based."

McCain's point was the 3-year deadline is a mirage - that Bush carefully preserved the next President's right to keep troops in Iraq beyond 2011 simply by claiming "conditions" weren't ready for U.S. troops to leave. McCain, of course, wants to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 1000 10,000 1,000,000 years.

Apparently McCain is completely unaware that Bush sold him out in the latest version of the agreement, according to Gareth Porter:

But the Oct. 13 final draft, a translation of which was posted by Raed Jarrar on his website Oct. 20, reveals that the Bush administration has been forced to give up its aims of softening the deadline for withdrawal and of a residual non-combat force in the country. Unlike the Aug. 6 draft, the final text treats any extension of that date as a modification of the agreement, which could be done only "in accordance to constitutional procedures in both countries".

That is an obvious reference to approval by the Iraqi parliament.

Given the present level of opposition to the agreement within the Shiite community, that provision offers scant hope of a residual U.S. non-combat force in Iraq after 2011.

Another signal of Iraqi intentions is a provision of the final draft limiting the duration of the agreement to three years -- a date coinciding with the deadline for complete withdrawal from Iraq. The date can be extended only by a decision made by the "constitutional procedures in both countries".

So according to the current draft, both Iraq's Parliament and our own Senate would be able to veto the extension of the U.S. occupation - which would be very bad news for Emperor McCain.

I wonder if Bush is afraid to tell him, or if Bush didn't bother because he knows McCain is going to lose.

Update 1: Maliki's own faction wants to modify the current draft to make it even harder for U.S. troops to stay after 2011:

On Sunday, al-Maliki's ruling Shiite alliance expressed reservations about the agreement and called for unspecified changes to the draft. Officials said some alliance members wanted to remove the government's authority to ask the Americans to stay beyond the withdrawal dates.

Update 2: Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) wants the agreement to be ratified by the Senate like ordinary treaties, and will push legislation early in 2009 to require the next President to submit it. It's unclear how many Senators would join him, but the answer is likely to depend on how much military immunity is given away by Bush in his negotiations with Iraq.