White House: No Timetable For Formation Of Iraqi Government

A White House spokesman told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One today that the Obama administration will not set a certain date by which Iraq’s new government must be in place.

“We’re not going to put a timetable on government formation,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said. “What we are saying, though, is that Iraq should move forward with a sense of urgency around government formation, that it’s time to get down to some of these core issues.”

Parties of both current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his opponent, Ayad Allawi, won enough seats in March’s elections to form governments, yet no action by either side has taken place. Rhodes said President Obama will discuss the need for Iraq to address this challenge during his roughly 15-minute televised address to the nation tonight…

Biden: Media Overplaying Violence In Iraq

During a meeting in Baghdad this morning with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden touted the security condition of the war-torn nation.

“Notwithstanding what the national press says about increased violence, the truth is things are still very much different,” he said. “Things are much safer.”

Biden referred to a series of attacks last Wednesday that killed 55 Iraqi civilians in different parts of the country as “dismal.”

The Vice President’s visit to Iraq, his fifth since taking office, purposely coincides with the withdrawal of the last U.S. combat brigade from there. The U.S. now has a total of 50,000 troops in Iraq…