President Bush agreed today to fixing a deadline for the withdraw of U.S. forces from Iraq.
News release the Washington Post:
…he may also have given President-elect Barack Obama more flexibility in fulfilling his campaign promise to bring the troops home.
…Bush administration officials acknowledged yesterday that the timetable laid out in the final agreement is not what the president wanted originally but said that they could go along with it because of a decline in violence in Iraq in the past year. “The security considerations on the ground have improved so much and the Iraqi security forces have improved so much that you can now set a date and be comfortable with it,” said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Pentagon officials said the time frame envisioned in the agreement gives them adequate time to safely remove all equipment and roughly 150,000 U.S. troops from Iraq, although they reiterated that such a withdrawal should take place only if conditions warrant it. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference yesterday that he and the top commanders for Iraq and the region are “comfortable” with the agreement, but that there would be special challenges in meeting a requirement that all combat troops be removed from Iraqi cities by June.
This sounds reasonable and sensible, especially in light of the gobs and gobs of our money that the Iraqis have squandered and the new revelation that they have removed oversight officials from their government. It is also a testament to President Bush’s willingness to work with the incoming administration and not hold untenable positions for the sake of partisanship or stubbornness. Overall, a very encouraging bit of news!
