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WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2008 – Amid an 80-percent drop in violence and with further withdrawals of U.S. forces in sight, the coalition in Iraq has reached the “endgame,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. “I believe we have now entered that endgame – and our decisions today and in the months ahead will be critical to regional stability and our national security interests for years to come,” he told the Senate Armed Service Committee during a hearing on Iraq and Afghanistan. Highlighting success in Iraq are reductions in U.S. casualties and overall violence, and the handover of...

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence. According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July. "He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview. Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in...

FORT LESLEY J. MCNAIR, D.C., Sept. 9, 2008 – The United States will continue to reduce its troop strength in Iraq, but will increase its footprint in Afghanistan, President Bush said here today. The president accepted the recommendations of military leaders to reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 8,000 through January. If security conditions continue to improve in the country, further reductions will be possible, Bush said at the National Defense University. Bush also announced plans to deploy a Marine battalion to train Afghan National Army troops in November and to send an Army brigade to Afghanistan in January....

General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, said declining violence in Baghdad raised the possibility that American combat troops could leave the capital by next summer. Asked in an interview with the Financial Times whether it was feasible that US combat forces could leave Baghdad by July, he said: “Conditions permitting, yeah.” His comments come as the US and Iraq hammer out the final details of a long-term security agreement that reportedly outlines a potential timeline for US combat troops to leave Iraqi cities by next summer, and the country by 2011. “The number of attacks in Baghdad...

There is nothing wrong with setting broad goals for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. The U.S. wants to leave as soon as this is feasible, and Iraqis have long wanted us to leave. At least since 2004, Iraq’s Kurds have been the only group in Iraq that showed a consistent desire for the U.S. to stay. It also is impossible to be certain that the risks of early withdrawal will really be greater from the risks of staying. It is at least possible that acting on early timelines will force Iraqis to move towards political accommodation, to take hard decisions,...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki expressed by far his toughest stance on the U.S. military presence in his country this week, by saying that all foreign forces should leave Iraq by the end of 2011. He rejected President Bush's ambiguous "general time horizon" of around 2011 and clarified that no U.S. training personnel or logistics troops would be allowed to stay in Iraq after the fixed date. Moreover, he offered a status-of-forces agreement to allow U.S. soldiers, as well as military contractors, to be tried in Iraqi courts. This comes as a surprise to all foreign governments that have their...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that an agreement had been reached in negotiations on a security pact with the United States to end any foreign military presence in Iraq by the end of 2011. "There is an agreement actually reached, reached between the two parties on a fixed date which is the end of 2011 to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil," Maliki said in a speech to tribal leaders in the Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. "Yes, there is major progress on the issue of the negotiations on the security deal,"...

ARLINGTON, Va., August 22 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator John McCain today issued the following statement on the U.S.-Iraqi negotiations for a Status of Forces Agreement: "I am pleased that, following the surge strategy led by General David Petraeus and our brave men and women in uniform, security in Iraq has improved to the point at which we can responsibly talk with our Iraqi allies about U.S. troop withdrawals. Because of the hard-won success of this strategy, the Iraqi security forces are able to take on ever greater responsibility for security in their country. We should not forget that this...

via translation - ALERT - The American troops out of Iraq end 2011 BAGHDAD - U.S. troops have left Iraq at the end of 2011 under the security agreement negotiated with the Americans who should be further examined by the highest authorities of Iraq, announced Friday by AFP Chief negotiators Iraqis. "At the end of 2011, American troops will withdraw from Iraq," Mohammed told al-Haj Hammoud.

All British combat troops are to be withdrawn from Iraq by the middle of next year, leaving a few hundred military trainers to continue instructing an Iraqi army division based in Basra, according to proposals confirmed by defence sources yesterday. The British sources also said that the Government had no plans to maintain a permanent base in Iraq, although they emphasised that no final decisions had been taken. Details of the new British personnel structure are to be negotiated in the status-of-forces agreement to be signed with Baghdad. Yesterday The Times disclosed, after an interview with Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi...

American soldiers will withdraw from cities across Iraq next summer and all US combat troops will leave the country within three years, provided the violence remains low, under the terms of a draft agreement with the Iraqi Government. In one of the most detailed insights yet into the content of the deal, Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, has also told The Times that the US military would be barred from unilaterally mounting attacks inside Iraq from next year. In addition, the power of arrest for US soldiers would be curbed by the need to hand over any detainee to...

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's foreign minister insisted Sunday that any security deal with the United States must contain a "very clear timeline" for the departure of U.S. troops. A suicide bomber struck north of Baghdad, killing at least five people including an American soldier. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters that American and Iraqi negotiators were "very close" to reaching a long-term security agreement that will set the rules for U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. Zebari said the Iraqis were insisting that the agreement include a "very clear timeline" for...

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators are "very close" to reaching a long-term security deal that will decide the fate of American forces in Iraq, the foreign minister said Sunday. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the Iraqis were insisting on the inclusion of a "very clear timeline" for the pullout of U.S.-led forces. The main sticking points have been over the authorization of U.S. military operations, immunity for American soldiers and sovereignty issues, Zebari said, adding that both sides "are compromising on all these issues." In remarks to reporters, Zebari said that talks were "on the brink" of agreement. "They have achieved...

Shi'ite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr stepped back into Iraq's political fray Friday with an offer that (if genuine) Washington would be hard-pressed to refuse: Set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and the Mahdi Army will begin to disband. "The main reason for the armed resistance is the American military presence," said Sadr emissary Salah al-Ubaidi, who spoke to reporters in Najaf Friday. "If the American military begins to withdrawal, there will be no need for these armed groups." Sadr in the past has vowed to expand the humanitarian work of his movement but promised to maintain...

BAGHDAD - Two Iraqi officials say the U.S. and Iraq are close to a deal under which all American combat troops would leave by October 2010 with remaining U.S. forces gone about three years later. A U.S. official in Washington acknowledges progress has been made on the timelines for a U.S. departure but offered no firm date. Another U.S. official strongly suggested the 2010 date may be too ambitious. A timetable is part of a security agreement being negotiated by U.S. and Iraqi officials.

ABC News' Mary Bruce reports: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., distanced himself this weekend from previously saying that Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq would be "a pretty good timetable." In an exclusive "This Week" interview with George Stephanopoulos, McCain explained, "Look, it’s not a timetable, as I said. I was asked, ‘How does that sound?’ Anything sounds good to me ... Anything is a good timetable that is dictated by conditions on the ground." McCain went on to question his rival's grasp of the situation in Iraq: “Now, look. Sen. Obama doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand...

First the Iraqi government gave Senator Barack Obama a boost by seeming to embrace his proposal for a 16-month timetable for withdrawing American troops from Iraq. But could Senator John McCain, who built his candidacy in large part on his opposition to a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, possibly be following suit? “I think it’s a pretty good timetable,” Mr. McCain said Friday in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room,’’ before adding that it should be based “on the conditions on the ground.’’ For months Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has railed against setting timetables for withdrawing from...

There is some irony in the fact that Democrats, after years of deriding Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a hopeless bungler and conniving Shiite sectarian, are now treating as sacrosanct his suggestion that Iraq will be ready to assume responsibility for its own security by 2010. Naturally this is because his position seems to support that of Barack Obama. A little skepticism is in order here. The prime minister has political motives for what he's saying -- whatever that is. An anonymous Iraqi official told the state-owned Al-Sabah newspaper, "Maliki thinks that Obama is most likely to win in...

Senator Obama refuses to be boxed in between what he considers two “false choices”, either:1) …On such and such date, come Hell or high water we’ve gotten our troops out, and be blind to anything that happens in intermediate months2) …completely defer to whatever the commanders on the ground say (because his military and strategic knowledge is better than theirs)LINKBy dismissing out of hand the absoluteness of a calender date by which all Americans will be out of Iraq, Senator Obama has just capitulated the political left’s dogma for the past six years (a debate that started in 2002 before...

THE INITIAL MEDIA coverage of Barack Obama's visit to Iraq suggested that the Democratic candidate found agreement with his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces on a 16-month timetable. So it seems worthwhile to point out that, by Mr. Obama's own account, neither U.S. commanders nor Iraq's principal political leaders actually support his strategy. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the architect of the dramatic turnaround in U.S. fortunes, "does not want a timetable," Mr. Obama reported with welcome candor during a news conference yesterday. In an interview with ABC, he explained that "there are deep concerns about . . ....

* Obama committed to 16-month withdrawal plan * Obama says al Qaeda and Taliban planning U.S. attacks * Obama says tribal leaders fear "precipitous" pullout * UK's Brown sees mission in Iraq changing next year AMMAN, July 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Tuesday he was committed to a 16-month timetable for a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, after a trip in which he met Iraqi leaders and U.S. officials. Obama was speaking in the Jordanian capital as part of a tour of the region in which he has sought to shift the focus of...

BAGHDAD, July 21 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama did not raise his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months in his talks on Monday with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi government's spokesman said. "This issue, we do not discuss ... ," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters when asked if Obama had brought up the 16-month timeframe.

It's hard not to have heard about the positive developments in Iraq lately. On Friday, the White House announced that President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had reached agreement on a "time horizon" for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops. Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last Wednesday that "security is unquestionably and remarkably better." Iraqi security forces recently took responsibility for a 10th province and expect to assume responsibility for all 18 of the country's provinces by year-end. There have been virtually no sectarian killings in 10 weeks. The Iraqi government...

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s government welcomed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday with word that it apparently shares his hope that U.S. combat forces could leave by 2010. The statement by Iraq’s government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, followed talks between Obama and Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki — who has struggled for days to clarify Iraq’s position on a possible timetable for a U.S. troop pullout. Al-Dabbagh said the government did not endorse a fixed date, but hoped American combat units could be out of Iraq sometime in 2010. That timeframe falls within the 16-month withdrawal plan proposed by Obama, who arrived...

The statement by an aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki calling his remarks in Der Spiegel "misinterpreted and mistranslated" followed a call to the prime minister's office from U.S. government officials in Iraq. Maliki had expressed support for a withdrawal plan similar to that of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in an interview with Der Speigel. U.S. troops should leave Iraq "As soon as possible, as far as we're concerned," Maliki had said. "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight...

McCain Backs Timeline to Get Obama Out of Iraq by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace (2008-07-20) — Republican presidential nominee John McCain today for the first time said he can now support a timeline to reduce the American presence in Iraq, specifically advocating the withdrawal from Iraq of Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama, and several battalions of U.S. news anchors and reporters. “It’s time to bring them home,” said Sen. McCain at a news conference attended by an journalism intern from the Des Moines Register. “The surge has worked, and it’s time to redeploy.” Sen. McCain said bringing Sen. Obama home...

BAGHDAD, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki denied that he has released statements backing a plan of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama which sets a timeframe for possible U.S. troops withdrawal from Iraq, the government's spokesman said on Sunday. Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement that Maliki's statements to German magazine Der Spiegel "have been misunderstood and mistranslated and were not conveyed accurately regarding the vision of Senator Barack Obama on the timeframe for U.S. forces withdrawal from Iraq."

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not back the plan of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and his comments to a German magazine on the issue were misunderstood, the government's spokesman said on Sunday. Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement that Maliki's remarks to Der Spiegel were translated incorrectly. The German magazine said on Saturday that Maliki supported Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months. The interview was released on Saturday. "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time...

A German magazine quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as saying that he backed a proposal by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months. Nuri al-Maliki told Der Spiegel that he favors a "limited" tenure for coalition troops in Iraq. Nuri al-Maliki told Der Spiegel that he favors a "limited" tenure for coalition troops in Iraq. "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months," he said in an interview with Der Spiegel that was released Saturday. "That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a German magazine that he supports Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. The apparent endorsement of a cornerstone of Obama’s foreign policy drew swift praise from the Obama camp. But the White House stressed that any timelines are contingent on “security gains” in the region. “U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” al-Maliki told the magazine Der Spiegel. He said he wants U.S. troops to leave...

ARLINGTON, Va., July 19 /Standard Newswire/ -- Today, McCain 2008 Senior Foreign Policy Advisor Randy Scheunemann issued the following statement: "The difference between John McCain and Barack Obama is that Barack Obama advocates an unconditional withdrawal that ignores the facts on the ground and the advice of our top military commanders. John McCain believes withdrawal must be based on conditions on the ground. Prime Minister Maliki has repeatedly affirmed the same view, and did so again today. Timing is not as important as whether we leave with victory and honor, which is of no apparent concern to Barack Obama. The...

Washington -- Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff on Monday blamed tightened security on the U.S.-Mexico border for increased violence there, and he said the border probably will not be fully secured until 2011, two years after President Bush leaves office. "(Increased violence) is what typically happens when you start to enforce and make it harder to fight over the shrinking pie, so to speak, and who gets the best opportunity to exploit the additional space that's left," Chertoff said at a news conference at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Monday. "That's a good...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months. In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible. "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."

President Bush said Friday he will soon agree with the Iraqi government on a "general time horizon" for when U.S. troops will leave Iraq, a significant shift in White House policy that it said would nonetheless remain conditional based on events on the ground. By the end of this month, the two governments hope to finalize an agreement that will allow U.S. troops to stay in Iraq into 2009 and will include what the White House described as goals for down the road, when more troops can come out.

The top American commander in Iraq is downplaying recent comments by Nouri al-Maliki on the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, claiming that the Iraqi prime minister wants “time horizons,” not timetables. During an interview that aired Friday on MSNBC, Gen. David Petraeus cast al-Maliki’s growing assertiveness on the presence of US. troops as a positive sign of the government’s sovereignty while lauding Iraq’s improved military ability. But Petraeus indicated that doesn’t necessarily mean American troops will be able to leave by the end of next year, a goal many Democratic lawmakers favor. “Again, what [al-Maliki] has said is not...

The Washington Post runs a devastating editorial against Obama's current position on Iraq: Barack Obama yesterday accused President Bush and Sen. John McCain of rigidity on Iraq: "They said we couldn't leave when violence was up, they say we can't leave when violence is down." Mr. Obama then confirmed his own foolish consistency. Early last year, when the war was at its peak, the Democratic candidate proposed a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. combat forces in slightly more than a year. Yesterday, with bloodshed at its lowest level since the war began, Mr. Obama endorsed the same plan. After hinting...

BARACK OBAMA yesterday accused President Bush and Sen. John McCain of rigidity on Iraq: "They said we couldn't leave when violence was up, they say we can't leave when violence is down." Mr. Obama then confirmed his own foolish consistency. Early last year, when the war was at its peak, the Democratic candidate proposed a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. combat forces in slightly more than a year. Yesterday, with bloodshed at its lowest level since the war began, Mr. Obama endorsed the same plan. After hinting earlier this month that he might "refine" his Iraq strategy after visiting the...

....says Washington Post. There are a large number of "depending on" qualifiers and so this is by no means a done deal. In any case, the military has no plan to send additional troops to Afghanistan till next years. If this happens, three brigades slated for Iraq in 2009 will retrain for Afghanistan. So why are we not happy? Haven't we been yelling and screaming for more troops for Afghanistan? We are not happy for two good reasons. First, the US has an absolute shortage of combat brigades. That three may go to Afghanistan and not Iraq changes nothing: the...

Iraq faces dilemma over US troops US presidential contender Barack Obama has repeatedly seized on statements attributed to Iraqi leaders to support his call for a troop withdrawal deadline. The key statement cited by Mr Obama and others was made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki last Monday in his address to Arab ambassadors in the United Arab Emirates. The prime minister was widely quoted as saying that in the negotiations with the Americans on a Status of Forces Agreement to regulate the US troop presence from next year, "the direction is towards either a memorandum of understanding on their...

The green zone of Baghdad, a highly fortified slice of American suburbia on the banks of the Tigris river, may soon be handed over to Iraqi control if the increasingly assertive government of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, gets its way. A senior Iraqi government official said this weekend the enclave should revert to Iraqi control by the end of the year. “We think that by the end of 2008 all the zones in Baghdad should be integrated into the city,” said Ali Dabbagh, the government’s spokesman.

Whatever nuance Barack Obama is now adding to his Iraq withdrawal strategy, the core plan on his Web site is as plain as day: Obama would "immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months." Is the Democratic candidate's troop-withdrawal strategy plausible? It is a plan that, no doubt, helped Obama get his party's nomination, but one that may prove difficult if he is elected president.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago. Such a withdrawal would be a striking reversal from the nadir of the war in 2006 and 2007. One factor in the consideration is the pressing need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there. More American and allied troops died...

Sixty years ago this month, the top story in campaign year 1948 was not the big poll lead of Republican nominee Thomas Dewey or the plight of President Harry Truman. It was the Berlin airlift. On June 23, the Soviets cut off land access to West Berlin. Gen. Lucius Clay, the military governor in Germany, called for sending convoys up the autobahns, but Allied troops were vastly outnumbered by the Red Army, and everyone feared they would overrun Western Europe unless the United States retaliated with the atomic bomb. Air Force generals said that there was no way planes could...

Sixty years ago this month, the top story in campaign year 1948 was not the big poll lead of Republican nominee Thomas Dewey or the plight of President Harry Truman. It was the Berlin airlift. Air Force generals said that there was no way planes could ferry the 8 million pounds of food and coal Berlin would need every day. Secretary of State George Marshall and Joint Chiefs Chairman Omar Bradley, two of America's most respected generals, felt Berlin was indefensible and we should withdraw. One man disagreed. President Harry Truman, in one crucial meeting after another, said, "We're not...

Iraq: The Iraqis want a timetable for U.S. withdrawal. So does Barack Obama. The difference is that Iraq is stepping up to the plate while Obama just wants to take our bat and ball and go home.Iraq's call for a withdrawal timetable for U.S. troops as part of a status-of-forces agreement is another sign of progress in the history of a fledgling democracy — progress that Democrats and Obama said would never happen. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made the timetable announcement on Tuesday, but it's not the precipitate withdrawal Obama has called for. Al-Maliki's national security adviser, Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, told...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A deadline should be set for the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces from Iraq, and the pullout could be done by 2011, an Iraqi government spokesman said Tuesday. "It can be 2011 or 2012," al-Dabbagh said. "We don't have a specific date in mind, but we need to agree on the principle of setting a deadline." Al-Dabbagh's comments come as the United States and Iraq try to negotiate a framework governing the stationing of U.S. and allied troops beyond the end of 2008, when the current U.N. mandate for coalition forces expires. Al-Dabbagh said any...

AMMAN -- It was an usually quiet day in Iraq on Friday in terms of violence, but the debate over a long-term security and military pact that the Iraqi government is secretly negotiating with the United States continued to raise a political storm among leaders eager to regain sovereignty over their country. Iraqi lawmakers said they were increasingly concerned that an Iraqi-U.S. pact, which would determine the role of U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate's term expires at the end of the year, would pass without their endorsement amid indications that the two sides were rushing to forge...

The United States on Tuesday rejected a demand from Iraq for a specific date for pullout of US-led foreign troops from the country, saying any withdrawal will be based on conditions on the ground. "The US government and the government of Iraq are in agreement that we, the US government, we want to withdraw, we will withdraw. However, that decision will be conditions-based," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said. Iraq said on Tuesday it will reject any security pact with the United States unless it sets a date for the pullout of US-led troops. "We will not accept any memorandum...

In a timely coincidence mainstream news sources are reporting that Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, the national security adviser of Iraq, will not accept any long term security arrangement with the USA unless a timetable is first set for American troop withdrawal. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama once advocated an immediate unconditional 16 month withdrawal timetable, but he suddenly moderated his position in recent weeks. Conservatives, President Bush, and Republican candidate John McCain have previously criticized Barack Obama's timetable as a strategic blunder. Mainstream news sources did not assess Mouwaffak al-Rubaie's influence within the Iraqi government, nor did mainstream news sources reveal if...

Iraq said for the first time today that it wanted to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from its territory. US President George Bush has long resisted any set schedule for pulling his 145,000 soldiers out of Iraq, arguing that it would play into the hands of insurgents. But an emboldened Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia prime minister who last week boasted he had crushed terrorism in Iraq, suggested it was time to start setting timelines. “The current trend is to reach an agreement on a memorandum of understanding either for the departure of the forces or a...