The title of this Yahoo! article should be interesting when President Obama moves into the White House on January 20, 2009. The headline: “Iraq spokesman says US security offer not enough”. So it seems increasingly unlikely that US troops can either come home or be redeployed to Afghanistan within 18 months.
According to Yahoo!, “Iraq's government spokesman said Monday (that) the proposed changes to a US security agreement were “not enough” to win parliamentary approval”. Specifically, this spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh told the Associated Press that “The American answer is not enough for the government to accept it in its current form. There are still points in which we have not reached a bilateral understanding”.
According to State Department spokesman Robert Wood, “We have not received any official response from the Iraqi government” without commenting further.
So, the critical question is: will President Obama still insist on his 18-month withdrawal schedule in light of this latest development?
