Iraqi SOFA Update: We Can't. We Won't.

The Iraqi cabinet has ratified a war-ending Status of Forces Agreement with the U.S. that it considers a done deal: All American boots have to be outta there by December 31, 2011.

But don't tell that to the White House or the Pentagon.

Bush administration spokesbabe Dana Perino now claims that the firm deadlines in SOFA are merely "aspirational dates," which I immediately envisioned as some old guy with tubes up his nose wheezing his last breaths. Which is kinda where the Age of Bush is anyway.

Then the Joint Chiefs of Staff whined on cue that there is no way that 150,000 pairs of boots and all of their materiel can be out of country by the deadline without raising serious security issues. So get started yesterday, okay?

Photograph by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters