The man must have changed his mind according to Reuters:

"Iraq would welcome more U.S. troops

20,000 more on the way, Bush says

Reuters
Published: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
BAGHDAD, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The Iraqi government would welcome an increase in U.S. troop numbers in Baghdad expected to be announced on Wednesday by President George W. Bush, the government spokesman said on Tuesday.

As U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen in central Baghdad, Ali al-Dabbagh said in the first official comment by the government on the expected U.S. move that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki welcomed Bush's new strategy on Iraq.

"The Iraqi government does not object to an increase in coalition forces. The Iraqi government supports this trend," Dabbagh told a news conference.

Battling growing sectarian violence, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced a major security plan for Baghdad, vowing to crack down on violence on all sides.

Gordon Smith, one of Bush's fellow Republicans, was among senators who attended a White House meeting to discuss the president's emerging strategy for Iraq, which Democrats have called an escalation of the war.

Smith said Bush told him and several other senators that the plan for the additional troops had originated with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Maliki had made commitments that the Iraqi government and military would take steps to strengthen security in exchange for more U.S. troops, Smith said.

Seeking to salvage the U.S. mission in an unpopular war nearly four years after the invasion, Bush's new plan is also expected to include setting "benchmarks" for Maliki to meet, aimed at easing sectarian violence and stabilising the country.

It is also expected to contain a job creation programme for Iraqis likely to cost more than $1 billion.

Maliki, a Shi'ite Islamist, has so far resisted U.S. pressure to crack down on militias loyal to his fellow Shi'ites, which the United States has said are the most serious threat to Iraq. But in a speech on Saturday he vowed to crush illegal armed groups "regardless of sect or politics."

Oh, and has that bastion of the Dems, Teddy (mind-that-bridge) Kennedy painted himself and his party into a corner? If he proceeds unmuzzled as he is he may very well hand the 2008 election to the Republicans.