Reid Aide: Bush Ignoring Will of Congress, Public on Permanent Iraq PresenceThe reactions to President Bush’s forthcoming long-term security guarantees to Iraq just keep on piling in. Here’s Jim Manley, spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), the Democratic leader in the Senate. He’s reacting in particular to General Lute’s statement that Bush doesn’t need Congressional buy-in for any security deal with Maliki:
“Nearly six years into the war, the President still fails to understand that ‘go-it-alone’ is a not a successful strategy. Just as he ignored facts and the world community in getting us into this war and is ignoring the demands of Congress and the American people to get us out, President Bush is now trying to unilaterally negotiate an agreement with Iraq on security — an area [where] the President has absolutely zero credibility.”
Speaking of going it alone, it’s worth noting that with the end to the United Nations Security Council mandate for the occupation — which Maliki heralded in a televised address — the remaining members of the Coalition of the Willing will no longer have a legal basis for staying in Iraq. After 2008, it’s just us and the Iraqis. (And the insurgents. And the Mahdi Army. And the other militias. And whatever al-Qaeda in Iraq remains.)