BUSH AND STATE DEPT. POOH POOH TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ. IRAQI PM MADE TO SOUND LIKE "BAGHDAD BOB"

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is being made to sound like the infamous of "Baghdad Bob" of the early days of the war by the Bush White House and the State Department when the PM suggested he wanted a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

"Baghdad Bob" was the propaganda merchant for Saddam Hussein during "Shock and Awe" and was always painting a rosy picture of how well the Iraqi troops were doing against the U.S. troops even when the U.S. troops were driving into Baghdad

No sooner had the new broke yesterday than al-Maliki was contemplating a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq but the Bush White House and the State Department sprung into action and virtually cut the legs out from underneath the PM by saying conditions on the ground would determine when U.S. troops pullout of Iraq and not the Iraqi Prime Minister.

The move by the Bush White House and the State Department makes clear the Bush administration wants to keep the war going right through the election and perhaps for many, many more years.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE

Iraq raises idea of withdrawal timetable

The Associated Press
updated 9:03 p.m. CT, Mon., July. 7, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25576993/

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister said Monday his country wants some type of timetable for a withdrawal of American troops included in the deal the two countries are negotiating.

It was the first time that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has explicitly and publicly called for a withdrawal timetable — an idea opposed by President Bush.

He offered no details. But his national security adviser, Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, told The Associated Press that the government is proposing a timetable conditioned on the ability of Iraqi forces to provide security.

In Washington, the State Department declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations and said officials in Washington were not yet entirely sure what al-Maliki had said.

"This falls in the category of ongoing negotiations, and I'm not going to talk about every single development, every single development in the negotiations," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

Al-Maliki said in a meeting with Arab diplomats in Abu Dhabi that his country also has proposed a short-term interim memorandum of agreement rather than the more formal status of forces agreement the two sides have been negotiating.