One of George Bush's Iraq mantras has been that he refuses to set a timetable for withdrawal of our troops. When challenged on this issue, he says that he defers to our people on the ground and their sense of how things are going. This fictional reason -- fictional inasmuch as he and his immediate staffers have overruled key military decisions like the size of the occupation force -- includes the concept that we don't want to abandon our friends in the current Iraqi government.
As it happens, we won't "abandon" them even if they want us to.
We are currently in negotiations with the government of Iraq over a security agreement for the period from 2008 onward. This is when the current UN mandate legalizing a foreign troop presence in Iraq expires. To stay in beyond this point, we need to have an accord with the current, legally elected government of Iraq.
Except they want us to have a timetable for troop withdrawals.
"We will not accept any memorandum of understanding if it does not give a specific date for a complete withdrawal of foreign troops," national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told reporters in the holy city of Najaf.
The security pact, also known as Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), has to be signed by July 31 according to a previous agreement between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, but it has provoked strong opposition in Iraq.
And the US State Department rejected the Iraqi demand for a specific timetable.
"The US government and the government of Iraq are in agreement that we, the US government, we want to withdraw, we will withdraw. However, that decision will be conditions-based," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said.
So if the conditions on which this decision will be based do not include the Iraqi government saying it is ready, what do they include? Setting some benchmarks would be a real step up here. A maximum number of civilian deaths per month? A certain percentage of Iraqi homes with continuous electrical power?
We need a better plan here than "We'll stay there 'til it seems okay or something."