President Bush was once again allowed to lie unchallenged at a press conference today when he was questioned about the role the Iraqi government has in Iraq:

THE PRESIDENT: Martha.

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. You say you want nothing short of victory, that leaving Iraq would be catastrophic; you once again mentioned al Qaeda. Does that mean that you are willing to leave American troops there, no matter what the Iraqi government does? I know this is a question we’ve asked before, but you can begin it with a “yes” or “no.”

THE PRESIDENT: We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It’s their government’s choice. If they were to say, leave, we would leave.

Q: — catastrophic, as you’ve said over and over again?

THE PRESIDENT: I would hope that they would recognize that the results would be catastrophic. This is a sovereign nation, Martha. We are there at their request. And hopefully the Iraqi government would be wise enough to recognize that without coalition troops, the U.S. troops, that they would endanger their very existence. And it’s why we work very closely with them, to make sure that the realities are such that they wouldn’t make that request — but if they were to make the request, we wouldn’t be there.

What doesn�t Bush understand? What doesn�t Congress understand? On the 9th of this month, the majority of the Iraqi parliament signed a draft bill calling on the US to set a timetable for withdrawal and freeze current troop levels. This is in keeping with about three-fourths of Iraqis, who have consistently wanted the US occupation to come to an end. If there is one thing differing groups of Iraqis are unified behind, it�s this. Hussein al-Falluji, a lawmaker from the largest Sunni coalition in parliament said, “We think that America committed a grave injustice against the Iraqi people and against the glorious history of Iraq when they destroyed our institutions and then rebuilt them in the wrong way.”

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h/t Truthdig