After Nouri al Maliki declared his support for Barack Obama's 16-month withdrawal plan to Der Spiegel, the Busheviks squeezed Maliki's testicles as hard as they could to get him to "walk back" his statement.

But Maliki stood his ground. On Sunday, his spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Maliki did not endorse Obama's candidacy - which is consistent with what Maliki told Der Spiegel - but refused to "walk back" Maliki's support for Obama's 16-month plan.

And on Monday, Ali al-Dabbagh said U.S. combat forces should leave Iraq by 2010 - giving President Obama 12 just months after he takes office in January 2009, instead of 16.

Maliki's position completely discredits John McCain's plan to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 1,000 1,000,000 years. And it also discredits McCain's entire candidacy, which is based on his supposedly "superior" knowledge of foreign affairs.

And the great irony is that McCain brought this entire debacle on himself two months ago when he challenged Obama to visit Iraq.

Until Obama's trip, Maliki was deliberately vague about when U.S. troops should leave Iraq. Even last Thursday, Maliki publicly "agreed" to Bush's endless "time horizon" instead of a specific "timeline."

But Obama's trip gave Maliki the opportunity to say what he really wanted without his Pentagon "minders" controlling his words.

Congratulations, John McCain - you screwed the pooch on Iraq!

Update 1: It's no mystery why Maliki is determined to send U.S. troops home despite Bush's nut-cracking. From today's NY Times:

U.S. Forces Kill Relatives of Iraqi Governor

BAGHDAD — American Special Operations forces shot to death the son and nephew of the governor of Salahuddin Province during a raid on Sunday in the northern city of Bayji, the latest in a series of operations that have resulted in the deaths of civilians or close associates of Iraqi government officials.

The governor, Hamed al-Qaisi, threatened to resign in protest and said he would suspend cooperation with American officials.

The shootings come at a delicate time in negotiations between United States and Iraqi officials over the terms of a new security agreement. The most contentious sticking point has been an Iraqi demand that American troops no longer be immune from Iraqi criminal laws, an ultimatum that Iraqi officials say has been spurred by unwarranted attacks on civilians. A new agreement is needed for American troops to remain in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year...

Iraqi fury over civilian deaths peaked in late June when American troops shot to death three bank employees on their way to work at Baghdad’s airport. The Americans called the three workers — two women and a man — criminals, and said they had fired on troops. But in a rare rebuke of the American military, the Iraqi Armed Forces general command called the shootings cold-blooded murder.