President Bush will never be classified as someone who bows to foreign pressures, that’s for sure. The latest “wait a minute” moment from the man I voted for comes as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suggests a timetable for America to withdraw its troops. From the article:

Iraq has proposed a short-term memorandum of understanding with the United States rather than trying to hammer through a formal agreement on the presence of U.S. forces, the country’s prime minister said Monday.

The Iraqi government proposed the memorandum after widespread Iraqi opposition to U.S. demands emerged during talks on a more formal Status of Forces Agreement. Some type of agreement is needed to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at year’s end.

“Now there is a memorandum of understanding replacing the draft agreement,” al-Maliki told several Arab ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates during a meeting Monday.

The proposed memorandum includes a formula for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, said the prime minister — an idea opposed by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Now, why exactly are we telling the Iraqis that we are NOT going to leave their nation? I was 110% for going in there and removing Saddam Hussein. No matter what the leftists want to say, the world is a better, safer place with that man out of power and in the ground. However, now that he is out of power and many lives have been spent setting up a new Iraqi government – give these people control of their own nation!

Does America – or more specifically President Bush – think it is the right course of action to reject a proposed schedule to remove our troops from this sovereign country? Yes, I understand that there needs to be an ordered draw down in forces so that Iraq isn’t thrown into turmoil, but that is included in the Iraqi proposal.

This is an interesting situation and one that I hope resolves itself with the best interests of our troops and the young Iraqi government in mind. But President Bush baffles me. Here is his golden opportunity to join forces with al-Maliki to create a tentative timetable for withdrawal and he is opposing the idea. If Bush could get his head on straight, he’d realize that if went along with al-Maliki, he’d essentially hand the White House over to John McCain. After Obama’s recent gaffe where he was “for a quick withdrawal before he was against it,” if Bush could take this issue away from his platform it would be provide a great benefit to McCain.

Sometimes you have to wonder who is in Bush’s ear these days.