Has Maliki wrecked McCain's one advantage in the 2008 campaign?

There's also the fact that McCain (and Bush as well, I believe) have said in the past that if the Iraqis wanted us to leave, that we should listen. Well, it wasn't too long ago that they said just that, but Republicans are tight-lipped about that. They don't seem to know how available everything they say is now. Thanks to YouTube and the Internet in general, it's not so easy for people to forget hypocrisy like that.

I'm still trying to find the direct Quote from the PM, it was similar to "IF favorable developments occur", but I know it exists, I heard it myself out of the mouth of the man. Everyone wants out of Iraq, no doubt, Iraq, america, Iran to name a few. But take this simple analogy, if you ran the security at a bank, would you blatantly announce when your guards would no longer be on duty of the alarm would be turned off? Or if you were running a police department, would you announce when patrols would not be in certain areas? From a strategic standpoint, its simply DUMB to say " we are leaving Iraq in such and such amount of time and on such and such a date" It has NEVER been a strategy in war and for a reason. I will also add, you cannot "end" a war, you either win it or lose it.

"Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has backed the withdrawal plans of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying the Illinois senator “is right” when he talks about withdrawing U.S. troops within 16 months. Maliki also appeared to disagree with Republican presidential candidate John McCain on other issues, such as the importance of the surge in making Iraq more secure and whether troop withdrawal equates surrender, as the Arizona senator has indicated. Asked in an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel of when he would like to see American forces leave Iraq, Maliki said: “As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned.” He then added that “Obama is right when he talks about 16 months. Assuming that positive developments continue, this is about the same time period that corresponds to our wishes.” ... “Those who operate on the premise of short time periods in Iraq today are being more realistic. Artificially prolonging the tenure of U.S. troops in Iraq would cause problems,” he said." --http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/maliki-obama-is-right-about-troop-withdrawal-2008-07-19.html ========== And now, please provide a citation of the claim of being misquoted, as well a citation of Maliki clarifying what he 'really meant' in contrast to the alleged misquote.

Actually, why don't you save us both some time and directly respond to this refutation of the "misquoted" claim, instead? http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16264.html

Kennyrose, you didn't say a single word about what the OP asked regarding what Maliki has said. Does it not matter to you what the Iraqis want to happen in their own country? You say repeatedly how well the surge has worked but why didn't Bush listen to the generals on the ground in the beginning when they said we needed more troops instead of letting it get to the quagmire it became? Any degree of success brought about by the surge only proves to point out the incompetence and mismanagement from the beginning of this occupation and that many of our troops not to mention Iraqi civilians didn't have to die. Annie