Maliki: Bush Pushed For Later Withdrawal Date To Help McCain

And now for News in time of War. Think Progress reports that the Bush administration have been playing politics with Iraq withdrawal plans, pressuring the Maliki government to delay the agreed upon withdrawal date by at least a year because the White House was concerned that Maliki’s endorsement of a 2010 time line would damage Republican John McCain’s presidential bid. The revelation came in an al-Iraqiya interview with Maliki last week:

MALIKI: Actually, the final date was really the end of 2010 and the period between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they [the Bush administration] asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the domestic situation [in the US] so it will not be said to the end of 2010 followed by one year for withdrawal but the end of 2011 as a final date. Agreement has been reached on this issue. They are willing to respond positively because they, too, are facing a critical situation.

Got that? The White House is willing to keep American's, our soldiers, in harms way for another year, just to help McCain win an election.

Support the troops?

Matt Duss of the Wonk Room has more and asks the question: “What did McCain know about this, and when did he know it?”