A source tells ThinkProgress that White House communications staff were concerned that Maliki’s endorsement of the 2010 time line would damage Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign. Indeed, during an interview with Iraqi television last week (according to an Open Source Center translation), Maliki suggested that the U.S. presidential elections played a role:
"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." - Prime Minister Maliki
- http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/23/maliki-bush-mccain-iraq/
Bush Administration Wants to Delay Withdrawal From Iraq To Help John McCain
Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by KenH, Sep 23, 2008.