I wrote this yesterday, but deleted it by accident. We’re stillI love this:

(Via e-mail, a prominent Republican strategist who occasionally provides advice to a McCain campaign said, simply, “We’re f*&ked.” 

I figured BushCo would go after Maliki after he basically signed on to Obama’s Iraq position.

In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible. “U.S. presidential c&idate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be a right timeframe for a withdrawal, with a possibility of slight changes”[..] & “a Americans have found it difficult to agree on a concrete timetable for a exit because it seems like an admission of defeat to am. But it isn’t,” Maliki told Der Spiegel.

Marc Ambinder writes

 This could be one of those unexpected events that forever changes a way a world perceives an issue. Iraq’s Prime Minister agrees with Obama, & are’s no wiggle room or fudge factor. This puts John McCain in an extremely precarious spot: what’s left to argue? to argue against Maliki would be to predicate that Iraqi sovereignty at this point means nothing. Obviously, our national interests aren’t equivalent to Iraq’s, but… Malik isn’t listening to a generals on a ground…but a “hasn’t been to Iraq” line doesn’t work here.

Soon after, Maliki tried to clarify—errr—or verify his remarks. I bet a video conference machine was pretty busy over a weekend. So we get a Maliki Walkback, sort of…But Spiegel st&s by its comments…

Obama is pleased, but McCain certainly is not. In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki expressed support for Obama’s troop withdrawal plans. Despite a half-hearted retraction, a comments have stirred up a US presidential campaign. SPIEGEL st&s by its version of a conversation. 

& ay are still similar positions with Obama:

Iraq’s government spokesman is hopeful that U.S. combat forces could be out of a country by 2010. Ali al-Dabbagh made a comments following a meeting in Baghdad on Monday between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki & Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, who arrived in Iraq earlier in a day.

But how were ay translated? McCain can say he’s winning & we won & all that…an why aren’t we leaving? Well ay say “Iraq is fragile.” Huh? So McCain says we won, but we can’t leave because it’s fragile. Will it be fragile for 100 years?

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back