Cheney's Not-So-Soothing Presence

Cheney's preparation for the trip is apparently so intense that he canceled a fundraiser in Bozeman, Mont., that had been scheduled for Wednesday.

Kevin Drum blogs for Mother Jones: "Looks to me like Bush thinks Cheney is the perfect guy to get the Cold War started back up. Unless, that is, you can think of any other issue that's of 'mutual interest' to those three particular countries."

Timeline Watch

Just how solid is that timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq that Bush has reportedly agreed to?

Pretty solid, says Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.

"There is an agreement actually reached on a fixed date, which is the end of 2011, to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil," Maliki said yesterday. "An open time limit is not acceptable in any security deal that governs the presence of the international forces," he added. "No pact or an agreement should be set without being based on full sovereignty, national common interests, and no foreign soldier should remain on Iraqi land, and there should be a specific deadline and it should not be open," he explained.

Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert H. Reid write for the Associated Press: "Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dug in his heels Monday on the future of the U.S. military in Iraq, insisting that all foreign soldiers leave the country by a specific date in 2011 and rejecting legal immunity for American troops. . . .

"Al-Maliki said the U.S. and Iraq had already agreed on a full withdrawal of all foreign troops by the end of 2011 -- an interpretation that the White House challenged. Until then, the U.S. would not conduct military operations 'without the approval' of the Iraqi government, al-Maliki said.

"White House spokesman Tony Fratto said negotiations with the Iraqis were continuing and repeated the U.S. position that the withdrawal must be linked to conditions in Iraq -- a clear difference with al-Maliki's interpretation of what had been agreed.

"'Any decisions on troops will be based on the conditions on the ground in Iraq. That has always been our position and continues to be our position,' Fratto said Monday in Crawford, Texas. 'There is no agreement until there is an agreement signed.' . . .

"President Bush has long resisted a timetable for removing troops from Iraq, even under strong pressure from an American public distressed by U.S. deaths and discouraged by the length of the war that began in 2003.

"Last month, however, Bush reversed course and agreed to set a 'general time horizon' for bringing troops home, based on Iraq's ability to provide for its own security. But the Iraqis insisted they want a specific schedule.

"'We find this to be too vague,' a close al-Maliki aide told The Associated Press on Monday. 'We don't want the phrase "time horizons." We are not comfortable with that phrase,' said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations."