THE REAL STORY ON IRAQI WITHDRAWAL

H/t This Ain't Hell:

This is the information the dirty liberal media is leaving out from their giddy excitement. Apparently this "withdrawal", as it's being discussed now, is limited to withdrawal from cities, and not the country entirely. It sounds consistent with the options that have been discussed in the past.

The Iraqi proposal stipulates that, once Iraqi forces have resumed security responsibility in all 18 of Iraq's provinces, U.S.-led forces would then withdraw from all cities in the country.

After that, the country's security situation would be reviewed every six months, for three to five years, to decide when U.S.-led troops would pull out entirely, al-Adeeb said.

So far, the United States has handed control of nine of 18 provinces to Iraqi officials.

"This is what the Iraqi people want, the parliament and other Iraqi leaders," said al-Adeeb.

The proposal, as outlined by al-Adeeb, is phrased in a way that would allow Iraqi officials to tell the Iraqi public that it includes a specific timetable and dates for a U.S. withdrawal.

However, it also would provide the United States some flexibility on timing because the dates of the provincial handovers are not set.

I'm not sure that any reasonable person can expect the Iraqi government to take any other public position.