The Daily Background

So apparently, according to today’s Washington Post, Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki proposed to President Bush that US troops withdraw from Baghdad and let the Iraqis handle the situation themselves as recently as November.

Firing up a PowerPoint presentation, Maliki and his national security adviser proposed that U.S. troops withdraw to the outskirts of Baghdad and let Iraqis take over security in the strife-torn capital. Maliki said he did not want any more U.S. troops at all, just more authority.

The president listened intently to the unexpected proposal at their Nov. 30 meeting, according to accounts from several administration officials. Bush seemed impressed that Maliki had taken the initiative, but it did not take him long to reject the idea

I guess we can add al-Maliki to our huge list of people who oppose an escalation in Iraq. Of course, the vast majority of Iraqis want US troops to withdraw, but now we know that their leader actually agrees with them.

The Post goes on to say that “in hindsight, some Bush advisers believe they misjudged the politics that would greet Bush’s Jan. 10 unveiling of the new plan.”

“They understood that many if not most Democrats would not welcome a troop increase but thought at least some would grudgingly go along — not anticipating what ended up as near-universal opposition by Democrats and visceral anger even among some Republicans.”

See, this surprises me. I mean, you’d think they’d have had at least some clue that after this past November’s elections, they’d understand that politicians weren’t going to stand for an escalation.

It’s quite clear now that Democrats will push through some kind of non-binding resolution in the Senate (if not two of varying degrees of severity), and the only question that remains is how forceful will the resolution in the House be worded- and it’ll be worded much more forcefully than that in the Senate to be sure. It is simply incredible that the White House did not anticipate this. Either they’ve been spoiled and gotten used to their rubber-stamp Republican Congress, or they truly are in a “state of denial.” Or both.

Filed under: Iraq Related, Z-TDB Blog