President Bush said during a May 2007 news conference that American forces would pull out of Iraq if the Iraqi government so desired.
Now the Iraqi government wants to set a timeline for U.S. forces to leave. It’s time for Bush to back his words up with action.
Iraq’s national security adviser said on Tuesday, in reference to negotiations with America over a pending security deal, that Iraq will accept no deal that does not contain a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign forces, according to The Associated Press. Today an Iraqi government spokesman said, according to CNN, that the pullout of American forces could be complete as early as 2011 depending on “conditions and circumstances that the country would be undergoing” at the time.
The Bush administration’s response is that the talks aren’t leading to a hard timeline for withdrawal. An official told CNN that the Bush administration is looking at “conditions, not calendars” and wants an agreement “that satisfies both of our needs.”
But Bush is going to have a difficult time doing anything other than accepting a timeline for withdrawal if the Iraqi government continues to insist on it. This is what he said during that 2007 news conference:
“We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It’s their government’s choice. If they were to say, ‘leave,’ we would leave,” Bush said.
That statement was an appropriate one: It’s their country. The argument all along from the Bush administration has been that the United States liberated the Iraqi people from a dictator and was helping them establish a government, rebuild their nation and reach autonomy.
Now the Iraqi government appears to believe it is approaching the strength to stand on its own and wants the United States to begin backing off. What better measure of autonomy than that desire from the government that it be allowed to take over the nation it governs?
Situation has improved, Iraqis are emboldened
This situation in Iraq is better this year than it was in 2007. A March ABC News poll found that most Iraqis believed their lives were going well and had improved since before the war. They were optimistic about the future and their interest in politics was increasing.
Since then, casualties have dropped and violence has fallen to its lowest level in four years in part because of last year’s surge in American forces. A recent report found that the Iraqi government is making progress in 15 of the 18 areas the Bush administration identified as necessary for the country’s health.
As a result, “Iraq’s government has felt increasingly confident in recent weeks about its authority and the country’s improved stability. Iraqi officials have sharpened their public stance in the negotiations considerably in just the last few days,” The Associated Press article states.
As long as the Iraqi government wants the help of U.S. forces, the Bush administration can argue that the United States should stay. But if Iraq wants to set a timeline for American soldiers to leave, the only way they can stay without a timeline is as an occupying, imperialistic force trying to impose America’s will on another nation.
With widespread public opposition to the Iraq war in America and across the world, that won’t fly. Election-year politics make this a difficult situation for the president, but he knew in 2007 that he would have to agree to withdraw American forces if the Iraqi government asked. Regardless of the impact agreeing to a timetable would have on the election, the same holds true in 2008.
If the Iraqi government wants to set a timeline for withdrawal, the United States needs to agree.
President Bush said during a May 2007 news conference that American forces would pull out of Iraq if the Iraqi government so desired.