Bush envisions U.S. presence in Iraq like S. Korea:

President George W. Bush would like to see a lengthy U.S. troop presence in Iraq like the one in South Korea to provide stability but not in a frontline combat role, the White House said on Wednesday.

The United States has had thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea to guard against a North Korean invasion for 50 years….

“The Korean model is one in which the United States provides a security presence, but you’ve had the development of a successful democracy in South Korea over a period of years, and, therefore, the United States is there as a force of stability,” Snow told reporters.

Which would explain why we’re building a billion-dollar embassy in Baghdad.

Honestly, does this come as a surprise - that we plan, and likely all along have planned, to make Iraq into our permanent military base in the Middle East? It renders the idea of “leaving” moot. Even in “leaving,” we may well keep tens of thousands of troops in the country, and would need to - if they are to serve as a rapid-response force, if they are to safeguard the black gold running beneath the Iraqi sands.

Josh Marshall runs down the ways in which Iraq isn’t South Korea, but I suspect none of that matters to Our Leader and his minions - just as none of it has mattered all along. Sunni, Shia, Kurd - none of it matters in our grand scheme of things. We are not there to “help” the Iraqis, we are there to help ourselves. And given that - who really cares what the Iraqis think, what the Iraqis want? What matters is what we want, and clearly, we want to stay. So I’m sure we’ll be able to find some Iraqi leaders who want the same thing. I’m sure they’ll ask us. If they know what’s good for them.