Iraqi PM Maliki Proposes Setting Timetable for Withdrawal

So... There goes another artificial Republican talking point down the drain:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has raised the prospect of setting a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

It comes as the US attempts to push through a new security deal before the end of 2008, when the UN mandate allowing a US presence in Iraq expires.

The Pentagon has played down the suggestion of a withdrawal timetable.

But correspondents say Iraqi MPs would be more likely to back Mr Maliki if the deal includes such a timetable.

This is as big an issue in the upcoming Iraqi elections as it is in the USA as most Iraqis, like most Americans, want the occupation to end.

There is a clear choice in the upcoming US elections between John "100 years in Iraq" McCain and Barack Obama's sane and much needed 16 month plan for withdrawal.

In other Iraq news and via the BBC:

• Female bomber kills nine in Iraq
  
  
• UAE waives billions of Iraqi debt
  
  
• US 'to scrap' contractor immunity
  
  
• Canada ruling boosts US deserter
  
  
• Abu Ghraib inmates sue US firms