Bush Responds To Maliki Withdrawal Endorsement: "That's Not What I Heard"

[babylonsister]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/bush_on_malikis_endorsement_of.php

Bush On Maliki's Endorsement Of 16-Month Timetable: He Didn't Say What He Said
By Greg Sargent - August 5, 2008, 2:37PM

Looks like we have yet another point in common between John McCain and George Bush: Both are responding to Nouri al-Maliki's inconvenient endorsement of Barack Obama's 16-month withdrawal timeline by saying that Maliki didn't really mean it.

From a new interview with the President...

SEOUL, Aug 5 -- President Bush said Monday he sees little distance between himself and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on how to approach troop reductions in Iraq, dismissing the suggestion that Maliki had effectively endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's plan to withdraw all U.S. combat brigades in 16 months.

"I talk to him all the time, and that's not what I heard," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post aboard Air Force One on the start of a trip to Asia. "I heard a man who wants to work with the United States to come up with a rational way to have the United States withdraw combat troops depending upon conditions on the ground, that's all."

If that sounds familiar, that's because it is. Last month McCain was asked what he would do as president if Maliki persisted in saying what he said, which is that he wants the troops out in around 16 months.

McCain's reply: "He won't. He won't. He won't."

Maliki either didn't say what he said, or he didn't mean what he said. Life is so simple sometimes...

[donco6]

1. "He won't, he won't, he won't."

"Because all I have to do is retighten those puppet strings a little . . . bit . . . more."

[Wizard777]

3. Or have Blackwater assasinate him. Why do you think they are Immune to Iraqi Law?

[rurallib]

2. When the Iraq commission tried to give W cover to pull out troops

he heard "send in more." So he lengthened tours and shortened R&R and escalated. The only one he listens to is his heavenly father - Dick Cheney.