Iraq tells America it can go now and America responds with "I don't wanna!"

In a rebuff to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Pentagon said Monday that any timetable for a US withdrawal from Iraq would depend on conditions on the ground there.

Maliki told Arab ambassadors on Monday he was pressing for such a timetable in negotiations with Washington on an agreement on the status of US forces in Iraq beyond 2008.

Asked about the prime minister's comments, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters: "With respect to timetables I would say the same thing I would say as respects to the security situation -- it is dependent on conditions on the ground."

Whitman said the United States had made clear "that we have no long term desires to have forces permanently stationed in Iraq."

"But timelines tend to be artificial in nature," he said. "In a situation where things are as dynamic as they are in Iraq, I would just tell you, it's usually best to look at these things based on conditions on the ground."

My favorite overused phrase by the Pentagon and Bush administration is this "depends on conditions on the ground" phrase. It essentially means that as long as there is violence happening due to our presence then we have to maintain a presence. WTF?

But the "ground" in question in the above phrase is Iraq.

And the people who are affected by the conditions on that ground are the Iraqis.

Now if those people say that things are fine and we can leave, how in the hell do we override that assessment and decide that we need to stay? Who are we protecting?

And if Iraq is now a "sovereign state" and they are asking us to leave, and we won't. Then what does that make us?