Are you ready to dump almost two trillion more dollars into Iraq?

That's what Abdul Qadir, the Iraqi Defense Minister, says is necessary before Iraq can secure its own borders:

The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.

Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.

Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.

President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up. Given Mr. Qadir’s assessment of Iraq’s military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.

Mr. Qadir’s comments are likely to become a factor in political debate over the war. All of the Democratic presidential candidates have promised a swift American withdrawal, while the leading Republican candidates have generally supported President Bush’s plan. Now that rough dates have been attached to his formula, they will certainly come under scrutiny from both sides.

Senior Pentagon and military officials said Mr. Qadir had been consistent throughout his weeklong visit in pressing that timeline, and also in laying out requests for purchasing new weapons through Washington’s program of foreign military sales.

“According to our calculations and our timelines, we think that from the first quarter of 2009 until 2012 we will be able to take full control of the internal affairs of the country,” Mr. Qadir said in an interview on Monday, conducted in Arabic through an interpreter.

“In regard to the borders, regarding protection from any external threats, our calculation appears that we are not going to be able to answer to any external threats until 2018 to 2020,” he added.

He offered no specifics on a timeline for reducing the number of American troops in Iraq.

Well, isn't that convenient, that a representative from the puppet government installed by the Bush Administration in Iraq has decided to do his buddy George W. Bush a favor and try to hogtie the next president into continuing to pour money into Iraq?

For the last few years I wondered if Bush and Cheney were actually going to leave when their terms were up. In my more tinfoil moments, I figured they would once again allow a terrorist attack to play out so they could cancel the elections this year. But now I'm not so sure. They don't even have to stay on in order to continue reaping the financial rewards of the Iraq War. All they need do is make sure that leaving is not an option for another ten years. And if it finishes the job of flushing the U.S. economy and the next generations' economic future down the toilet, well, they aren't his base.