Are you following what's been going on with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and his interview in the German magazine, Der Spiegel? You may not have been because most of the American press is treating it with all the importance of Dog Bites Man. Basically, al-Maliki said in the conversation that Barack Obama's sixteen month timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq made sense to him. The White House then called to demand that al-Maliki "clarify" (i.e., retract) his remarks…and a spokesguy for Iraq issued a half-assed statement that said al-Maliki had been misunderstood, though he didn't say about what.
I won't say much more about it. You should go to whatever news sources you trust and see what they're saying about it…and if they're not saying anything, you should trust them a lot less. Speigel is standing by its story and there's apparently tape…and the statements attributed to al-Maliki are pretty unambiguous. So either the magazine just fabricated quotes — which the Iraq rep is not charging — or the prime minister of Iraq is laying out an exit strategy for the U.S. that happens to more or less mirror the Barack Obama proposal that John McCain keeps saying is not workable and not in Iraq's best interests.
But go read up about it. Whatever happened there, it's a much bigger story than the press is admitting. Then again, the Washington Post has more pressing, important news to cover. They're only up to Chapter 8 of a 12-part front page series on the disappearance of Chandra Levy.