Iraq and the US have been working on a deal for many, many moons about which Bush wants to bypass Congress and Maliki wanted to diss the Iraqi Parliament. However, the agreement seems to have hit a snag as the Iraqis want to include a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops.

Say what?  How dare the sovereign country of Iraq tell the US occupiers when to leave their country!  At least so says Bush and his State Dept. loyalist flunkies.

From AFP: "Iraq said on Tuesday it will not reach any security pact with Washington unless it sets a date for the pullout of US-led foreign troops, a proposal turned down by US President George W. Bush.

"The Shiite-led government's demand -- which was swiftly rejected by Washington -- underlines Iraq's new tougher stand in complex negotiations aimed at striking a security deal more than five years after the US-led invasion.

" 'We will not accept any memorandum of understanding if it does not give a specific date for a complete withdrawal of foreign troops,' national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told reporters in the holy city of Najaf.

"Baghdad and Washington are negotiating a deal that would see the presence of US-led forces beyond 2008 when the UN mandate which provides the legal basis for a foreign troop presence in Iraq expires.

"The security pact, also known as Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), has to be signed by July 31 according to a previous agreement between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, but it has provoked strong opposition in Iraq.

"And the US State Department rejected the Iraqi demand for a specific timetable.

Gee, seems like the US is the colonial occupier and Iraq its oil slave, not sovereign, country.

Of course, I've written about the SOFA agreement before and imperial King George's plan to ignore Congress.

However, Pinocchio Bush seems to have forgotten this, also: 

"President Bush said today if the Iraqi government were to ask the United States to leave Iraq, he would grant the request.

" 'We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It's their government's choice,¢¢ the president said during a Rose Garden news conference. "If they were to say leave, we would leave.' "

Wonder what McSame thinks about this, since he wants us to stay in Iraq for a century or more.