WSJ: US to Withdraw from Iraq by 2011

Gina Chon and Yochi J. Dreazen report in the Wall Street Journal that a draft agreement has been reached between the US and Iraq that calls for a withdrawal of US troops by 2011.

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators reached agreement on a security deal that calls for American military forces to leave Iraq's cities by next summer as a prelude to a full withdrawal of combat troops from the country, according to senior American officials.

The draft agreement sets 2011 as the date by which U.S. combat troops will leave Iraq, according to Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Humood and other people familiar with the matter.

Helene Cooper, Stephen Farrell and Thom Shanker report in The New York Times that Secretary of State Condaleezza Rice is in Baghdad to help iron out details on the deal.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here Thursday to try to iron out the last remaining differences on a long-awaited security agreement to govern the presence of American troops in Iraq, after negotiators in Baghdad said they had agreed on a draft.

Ms. Rice said that her visit, which was previously undisclosed, should not be viewed as a sign that a final agreement, which has been under negotiations for five months, was imminent. But she said the talks had reached the point where political leaders from both the United States and Iraq could push on the remaining decisions. Those would address the timing of American forces’ withdrawal and the issue of immunity for American troops from Iraqi prosecution.

Kevin Drum comments in Washington Monthly on the potential political implications of this agreement if it becomes finalized.

This is very good news for Democrats. It means that our eventual withdrawal from Iraq will not only be a bipartisan action, it will have been the creation of a Republican president. This is going to make it almost impossible for conservatives to ramp up any kind of serious stab-in-the-back narrative against anti-war liberals.

Basic Obama spin: "I'm glad to see that President Bush has finally come around to my view etc. etc." This ought to be a big win for him: he visits Iraq, meets with Nouri al-Maliki, gets Maliki's endorsement for a near-term troop withdrawal, and then gets to applaud as President Bush signs on. This is also good news for Dems in conservative districts, since it eliminates a campaign issue that potentially hurts them.

Basic McCain spin: "It's good news that Iraq is now secure enough that we can envision bringing our troops home etc. etc." He'll also talk about how the surge deserves all the credit and he'll claim that 2011 is a totally different thing than Obama's plan to withdraw by 2010. This isn't great spin, but it's probably the best he's got.

--Ballard Burgher