Gee, these folks don't know how to treat their liberators, do they? As a sovereign nation, do they really have any other option than to be a servile colony?

Gee, why wouldn't a country want thousands of heavily armed young men with a taste for violence running around their country with zero accountability?

Where are the emperor's clothes when the puppet government has to start answering to its people? Reading the NYT piece I had a sneaking suspicion that if the US doesn't get what it wants it can just label Maliki part of the "axis of evil" (also the name of my band!) and insist he needs to be removed as a conspirator with Iran.

I'm waiting with bemusement to see where the chips fall. I wonder if Electro Robot was once like me.

Now Cheney's private army will have to find another country to FUBAR and walk away from scott free. No matter. Bush would probably give Cheney's mercenaries a blanket Pardon for their war crimes anyway. One swish of the pen. So "fire at will" you bad-assed puppies. Kill an Islamic for God and Country.

One more sobering thought comes to mind: Where would one house that many psychos once the murdering stops? I sure as hell wouldn't want those bastards living near me and my family. Wyoming. Now there's a wide open "wild west" potential home. They can all drop by Cheney's undisclosed location for some of Mary's cookies. What fun.

Greetings

...when your sock puppet turns on you!

We do everything for this ungrateful bastard! Place him in power, give him billions, even hang Saddam for his amusement and this is how he shows his gratitude

You think it has anything to do with all those Sunni Militia we are funding? Rivals to the Iranian funded Shia Milita? Rivals to HIS Iranian funded Shia Milita....

Tricky business this nation building ;)

Enjoy the journey

WarLord

Alaska. They can play weekend warrior with each other until the elements get the better of them.

Good idea. They can also be near oil. That's why they are there anyway...

I quess the Iraqi prime minister didn't get the memo from Colin Powell....It's like Pottery Barn, You break it - You own it....Guess they don't have a Pottery Barn in Bagdad yet. Now that we've broken it, we also now own it. Sheesh...why is this so hard for them to understand.

I'm sure there must be a song that laments what happens when you want to stay but the object of your affection wants you to go.

That's the position McCain is in. He wants us to stay in Iraq, and he isn't talking about the fact that the Iraqis are not signing on. Further, why aren't reporters asking him about this?

Iraq doesn't want us there anymore and the UN mandate for our being there expires on December 31st. Now we have a timetable for withdrawl that nobody has to take responsibility for. This is a win-win situation. Now all Bush needs to do is declare victory(again) and bring our troops home.

Let's see if the little coke-monkey can manage to do the right thing when the opportunity is fed to him on the silver spoon he was born with. Come on, George, you can do it. Just this once do something smart.

If the Iraqi government, in concert with the encouragement of all the neighboring countries, can stand up in agreement to plan its future, US forces can withdraw.

The United Nations can provide any mediation sought.

If Iraq's democracy has united enough to forego any continuations of civil war, US absence may encourage its peaceful development.

We have plenty of repairs to attend to here at home.

Real political progress in that far country should not be puppet stringed to suit any pre-conceived White House blueprint.

Every eye should be open to the possibility of Iraq taking care of itself.

Maybe they are weary enough of hurting each other to begin reconciliation.

If the United States could leap to wisdom and listen in objective patience, such an outcome might well result.

That whole region would be better serving itself in a truce of diplomacy.

Let them try it.

I agree with Iaintbacchus, this is the Yankees and Joe Torre. The Yanks management offered a deal that Torre would reject. Both parties knew it was time to part ways and this was the way for both to save face.

This is how the Administration plans to get out of Iraq, put forth an offer that no "sovereign" country would accept. The US will claim that the Iraqi government has spoken and we have no choice but to withdraw.