Iraq asks troops to stay as U.S. death toll spikes
Pressure has mounted ahead of the November 7 congressional poll to extract U.S. troops from the bloody turmoil afflicting Iraq since Bush ordered the invasion three and a half years ago. But the Iraqi government, despite open friction with Washington this past week, said it wanted their U.N. mandate extended by a year.
Speaking shortly after a bomb killed 28 people in a Baghdad Shi'ite slum on a day that saw at least 70 Iraqis killed across the country, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters: "The presence of the Multi-National Force is indispensable for the security and stability of Iraq and of the region at the moment."
Iraq has become central to the congressional election campaign and Bush is rallying his Republic supporters, defending his policy and accusing opposition Democrats of lacking a plan:
"The Democratic goal is to get out of Iraq. The Republican goal is to win in Iraq," he told a rally in the state of Georgia. "This election is far from over."
Not that the Republicans would actually put pressure on the Iraqi government to support their endless stay the course strategy or anything because everybody knows they're above that kind of manipulation, right? And this little announcement certainly has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley is in Iraq right now twisting some arms and telling al-Maliki to shut up either, right? And, of course, it's just a coincidence that this public outcry from Iraq is coming at a time when polls are showing that the American people trust the Democrats more to handle the war there, right?
Naw...of course not...
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