A very clear timeline

By Michael J.W. Stickings

It looks like the Iraqis want the Americans to get the hell out of their country, and soon. As Reuters is reporting, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said today that there must be a "very clear timeline" for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. (The key issues yet to be resolved involve immunity for U.S. troops from Iraqi law, the authority of the U.S. to detain Iraqis, and the authority of the U.S. to conduct military operations. According to Zebari, Iraqi negotiators have "found compromises on all these issues." The U.S. may not give in so easily.)

And what does this tough position mean?

I agree with my friend Cernig: "All of [this] points to an upcoming humiliating defeat for Bush, McCain and their neocon-inspired philosophy of 'we broke it, we own it.' After five years, hundreds of thousands of lives lost and trillions spent, the Iraqi Green Zone elite they installed and had thought was tame are about to remind them that the real Pottery Barn Rule is 'you broke it, pay up and get the f**k out of our store!' To continue the occupation indefinitely, they would have to rid themselves of their own troublesome, string-cutting puppets. That might be too costly an option even for the neocons to contemplate."

Yes, but I'm not sure anything is too costly for the neocons -- and not just to consider but to act upon. They may ultimately, and reluctantly, come to accept withdrawal according to an Iraqi-demanded timeline, but they'll undoubtedly continue to blame anyone and everyone else for the failure of their misadventurous Dream War in Iraq, including the Iraqis themselves.

The neocons, like the warmongers more broadly, haven't learned a thing. And their sights, with Iraq behind them, are already set on the next target...

Iran. Or whatever else they can bomb with unaccountable impunity.