The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, will be presenting a US withdrawl timeline tomorrow.
Newsweek has some of the details:
June 24, 2006 - A timetable for withdrawal of occupation troops from Iraq. Amnesty for all insurgents who attacked U.S. and Iraqi military targets. Release of all security detainees from U.S. and Iraqi prisons. Compensation for victims of coalition military operations.
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Those sound like the demands of some of the insurgents themselves, and in fact they are. But they're also key clauses of a national reconciliation plan drafted by new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who will unveil it Sunday. The provisions will spark sharp debate in Iraq--but the fiercest opposition is likely to come from Washington, which has opposed any talk of timetables, or of amnesty for insurgents who have attacked American soldiers.
So, is Iraq an independent nation? If so, then this timetable should be honored by the US, right?
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Of course this Iraqi timeline is not exactly what the GOP had in mind, but then again they figured we would be welcomed with flowers.
And how exactly do we deal with amnesty for Iraqi's who have killed our soldiers? According to this timeline, America is seen as an "occupier" and those who have attacked and killed the invaders are to be forgiven.
The distinction between insurgents and terrorists is one of the key principles in the document, and is in response to Sunni politicians' demands that the "national resistance" should not be punished for what they see as legitimate self-defense in attacks against a foreign occupying power. Principle No. 19 calls for "Recognizing the legitimacy of the national resistance and differentiating or separating it from terrorism" while "encouraging the national resistance to enroll in the political process and recognizing the necessity of the participation of the national resistance in the national reconciliation dialogue."
Is this the noble cause that our soldiers have died for? If the US doesn't "like" what the Iraqi government is proposing, what exactly does the US propose doing? Haven't we said that Iraq now has an independent government? Do "independent" governments need to have "permission" from an outside nation to pass legislation and govern themselves?
This is what "stay the course" has brought in Iraq, and if we continue to "stay the course" what little credibility we have left in the world is going to be destroyed.