Soldiers kept in harms way to benefit John McCain Presidential campaign.

Last July, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said U.S. troops should be out of Iraq “as soon as possible” and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) withdrawal plan. Obama “talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” Maliki told Der Spiegel magazine.

Do you remember this? It was a great moment for supporters of Barack Obama, and it demonstrated that his ideas about Iraq and when we could start to bring our troops home was right in line with the wishes of the Maliki government.

But then, after Bush started to "negotiate" an actual timeline for withdrawing the troops, the date was pushed back to 2011. Did you ever wonder why an extra year was added? And why that would make nay difference?

Well if you guessed the reason was political then you get a gold star.

As it turn out the Bush administration convinced the Maliki government to agree to a timeline that was a year later to help his choice for President, John McCain, win the White House.

This according to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-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 asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the [U.S] domestic situation 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.

So to sum up, the families of any soldiers who lose their lives after 2010 can thank John McCain, and best buddy George Bush, for taking their loved ones from them.

And this is the candidate running on his experience with war and the military. Apparently what that experience tells him is that Americans are an expendable commodity that he can waste simply further his own ambitions.

US and Iraq to agree on setting timetable for withdrawal of troops. That's right "timetables"!

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday that U.S. and Iraqi officials agree that timetables should be set for a U.S. troop withdrawal, but conceded that nailing down a broader pact on future relations is difficult.

Appearing together at a news conference, Rice and Zebari also mutually asserted that a final agreement between Washington and Baghdad on a a broad document spelling out the nature of any future U.S. troop presence and Washington-Baghdad relations is close to fruition, but not yet complete.

"We have agreed that some goals, some aspirational timetables for how that might unfold, are well worth having in such an agreement," Rice told reporters after meeting with Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The two sides had come together on a draft agreement earlier this week and Rice made an unannounced visit to Baghdad to press officials there to complete the accord.

This is one of the most bizarre things about the McCain campaign.

While the news about withdrawing troops and establishing timetables is dominating the news, he is still talking about "winning the war" and "how the surge is working".

Does John McCain not have access to a newspaper? I mean I know he cannot work his computer to search for pertinent news items but surely he may have overheard one of the cable networks discussing this new direction.

And if we are all done killing Iraqis which war does John McCain talk about winning? He has already established the majority of his credibility around his ability to win wars, but with no wars to win what does he run on?

He tried to start some shit with Iran and Russia but could not get traction there. So essentially John McCain is the "war candidate" looking for a war.

I can't say that makes me feel very secure.

When is a timetable for withdrawal not a timetable for withdrawal? When the Bush administration refuses to say they were wrong.

The United States and Iraq have agreed to seek "a general time horizon" for deeper reductions in American combat troops in Iraq despite President Bush's once-inflexible opposition to talking about deadlines and timetables.

Iraqi officials, in a sign of growing confidence as violence decreases, have been pressuring the United States to agree to a specific timeline to withdraw U.S. forces. The White House said Friday that the timeframe being discussed would not be "an arbitrary date for withdrawal."

What the fuck is a "time horizon"? Just call it what it is. It is a timetable.

And not only is it a timetable, but it is one that the Iraqis are forcing the administration to accept or look like they are not respecting the very sovereignty of the elected Iraqi government that we have been told our soldiers are over there risking their lives to support. In my opinion that is the best kind of timetable.

This is great news for Iraq, for Barack Obama who has been calling for the troops to come home, and for the American people who have watched their countries resources squandered to pay for this unnecessary war.

But with this war coming to a close what will John McCain run for President on? A war with Iran? Not now that we are in negotiations with them. Will he run on his economic plan? Not as long as he keeps Phil "Nation of whiners" Gramm as his economic advisor. See the problem?
(Update: Apparently Phil Gramm has stepped down as McCain's economic advisor and left the campaign entirely.)

And he can't even increase his war rhetoric about Afghanistan because Barack already beat him to it. McCain must be kicking himself that he chose to push the wrong damn war. I mean there were only the two choices and he picked the wrong one.

Is there anything left for McCain to run on? Well I certainly hope he is not going to try and win voters over with his sense of humor.

Now more then ever this election is Obama's to lose, let's hope he breaks the Democrat curse and actually wins in a blow out.