You are a hack. Do you get paid by the DNC? You guys are getting as bad as Faux News. The amount of spin you inject into each and every 'article' is nauseating. Try reporting the facts without peppering the your blurb with trumped-up indignation and bias. The best thing about Salon for the past decade has been its honesty in reporting things that the MSM wouldn't report...and giving analysis...the crap you are spewing now is just propaganda. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? Is that your line of thinking?

and we won't leave without it.

All else be damned.

How hard is that to understand? I sincerely hope that Maliki and others in Iraq make this point over and over again in the next few months. It will be at least entertaining to watch McCain (and Bush) sweating and stammering mightily before the American people and trying so very hard to convince us that, yes the Iraqis really do want us there.

McCain blames Congress for lack of action but what percentage of votes did he cast in the last 18 months?

That record, his flip-flops on a number of issues and his "mispeaking" on a number of others are sufficient to wonder whether it is cynical arrogance or the beginning of senile dementia! McInsane?

We've set the Iraqis free! Freedom is on the march! And we're going to give them more and more freedom for the next 100 years, whether they want it or not!!

Clearly when Bush talked about freedom for Iraqis, he wanted to free them from this mortal coil so his cronies could lay claim to the oil. It's a small technical difference from what Joe Sixpack understood the mission to be. No cause for alarm.

Yes, the Prime Minister is a politician. He is also the head of state there. When the head of state tells you to pack up your military and get out of his country, and you refuse, that makes you an occupying force.

Assuming McCain wins in the fall (not likely, in my opinion), it will be interesting to see the war hawks spin the "We can't leave, things are so good/bad over there it'd be crazy to pull out" talking point when the country itself is telling us its time to pull out.

So what if 75% of Americans believe the economy is in recession? Probably fewer than 10% of Americans know the definition of recession -- two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. The numbers just out for 1Q08 show the economy grew by 1%. Not spectacular, but certainly not a recession.

Salon's silly emphasis on public opinion polls shows why so many Salonistas are gaga for Obama and actually think he speaks the truth every time he opens his mouth.

Initial Statement "I didn't know Rev. Wright said such nasty things in church. I wasn't there when he said them."

Inoperative! He disinvited Wright to his campaign kickoff specifically citing Wright's tendency to "get a little rough" sometimes.

Initial Statement "I can no more disown Rev. Wright than I can disown my white grandmother."

Inoperative! "I regret I must end my membership in Trinity Church" after Wright becomes a liability. Watch out, grandma!

Initial Statement "I will withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months."

Inoperative! "I will continue to gather information to make sure that our troops are safe and that Iraq is stable."

I can picture the scenario in my head now. Sometime in Sept/Oct (perhaps timed with Iraqi elections) a ‘deal’ is announced with the Iraqi government that includes a ‘loose’ time line for withdrawal of US troops. Most likely over a period of 2-3 years.

McCain (and his base in the MSM) embrace the plan wholeheartedly. That effectively neutralizes the Iraq issue just enough to swing the election McCain’s way (don’t laugh, a good 5-10 percent of swing voters are dumb enough to fall for this).

Then sometime in Dec or Jan (before Bush leaves) there is a spike in Iraqi violence. Iran, of course, gets the blame. Bush suddenly notices Maliki’s close ties with Iran and decides the Iraqi government is too ‘corrupted by Iranian influences’ and moves to depose Maliki and resume direct US control.

This renders the ‘deal’ null and void and naturally we have to say in Iraq until the situation ‘stabilizes’ again.

The "time table" is a political concessionweapon to Al Sadr. By advocating a time table, Maliki neutralizes Sadr's one key advantage, this after somehow inflicting the appearance of military defeat on Sadr's militia.

Iraqi elections are coming up, and from the Shia side Sadr presents the most difficult challenge. Defeat this and Maliki secures his nomination.

It's been clear for months that some kind of time table for combat units would be part of the new agreement, but it’s not a time table in the way most Americans probably think of it. Certain logistical and support units are likely to remain behind, and withdraw will be based more on achievements in the Iraqi military than based on time.

How many times has chimpy Bush said when the Iraqi's want us out we will leave? How much plainer can Maliki make it?McCain Bush's third term. Obama another disaster. what a non choice we have for president

I would count of that scenario.

Maliki "gets" the difference between a McCain presidency and an Obama presidency.

And frankly for most Americans, 3 more years is just too long. WE CANNOT AFFORD IT. WE'RE TIRED IF FUNDING IT AND WANT OUT SOONER THAN LATER>

McCain cannot win even with that argument. Sorry. Not on Main Street USA.

I prefer sticking with the candidate who is setting the goal at 16 months. Doesn't mean we'll be all out, but it sure is better than 3 more years. Besides, I think a lot of Americans are thinking (by now) that maybe the Iraqis are using us. They have their own source of money but we're paying for everything. (Pakistan is playing us as fools too).

That what the Iraqi's want makes the slightest bit of difference to the regime in Washington. They will simply threaten the Iraqi government (which is, after all, just our puppet government) until they comply. If the Iraqi's can stand up to us, more power to them but I just don't see it happening.....