On the one hand, it appears that bush is an arrogant stubborn man, who refuses to acknowledge his mistake in invading iraq, and is merely running out the clock to pass his mess on to the next president who will have to make the tough choices.
On the other hand, news reports bubble up every now and then. Usually involving Cheney covertly flying into Riyahd to meet with the saudi royals, and then discretely flying back to washington. It has been speculated that the Saudis have threatened bush to not leave iraq. The saudis (and the arabs in general) fear that their hated nemisis, the Iranians will basically make Iraq a shite puppet state for the persians. And expand persian influence. An intolerable situation for the arabs. With saudi oil being the gun pointed at our heads, its not improbable to believe that the Saudis basically ordered bush to keep the US Army in Iraq. To blunt the advance of persian infuence into southern iraq.
On the other hand, news reports bubble up every now and then. Usually involving Cheney covertly flying into Riyahd to meet with the saudi royals, and then discretely flying back to washington. It has been speculated that the Saudis have threatened bush to not leave iraq. The saudis (and the arabs in general) fear that their hated nemisis, the Iranians will basically make Iraq a shite puppet state for the persians. And expand persian influence. An intolerable situation for the arabs. With saudi oil being the gun pointed at our heads, its not improbable to believe that the Saudis basically ordered bush to keep the US Army in Iraq. To blunt the advance of persian infuence into southern iraq.