Iraq wants a U.S. timetable for withdrawal.

Gee, do you think that’s going to happen?

Kidding aside, this will test the right-wing mythology of Iraq as a sovereign nation. If Iraq is and is to be sovereign, and they want a timetable for withdrawal - then they have to get one, don’t they? And if we refuse that - “negotiating” it out of existence - then this never was about Iraq for the Iraqis, was it?

Update: Nice catch by Atrios here:

Question: “What would or should we do if, in the post-June 30th period, a so-called sovereign Iraqi government asks us to leave, even if we are unhappy about the security situation there?”

McCain’s Answer: “Well, if that scenario evolves than I think it’s obvious that we would have to leave because — if it was an elected government of Iraq, and we’ve been asked to leave other places in the world. If it were an extremist government then I think we would have other challenges, but I don’t see how we could stay when our whole emphasis and policy has been based on turning the Iraqi government over to the Iraqi people.”

That’s 2004; does John McCain 2008 say the same thing?