How snotty and condescending is this regime? Check out this exchange

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MATT LEE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Without relitigating the decisions that were made in the last term or over the past couple years, can you just address the suggestion in one of the earlier questions that the United States abandoned Iraq?

MARIE HARF, STATE DEPARTMENT: Well, I would fundamentally disagree with it. Just because we don’t have troops on the ground doesn’t mean we don’t have a continuing close partnership with the Iraqi Government. You see that all the time from the assistance we give them. We talked a little bit about it over the Christmas holiday, I think, some of the additional military assistance we’ve given them. So we don’t define a relationship with a country based on boots on the ground. In fact, it’s the opposite. We very much have a close and continuing partnership and we’ll keep working with them on this joint threat.

QUESTION: Was it not the Administration’s preference to keep a number of troops on the ground in Iraq?

MS. HARF: I’m really not going to relitigate the —

QUESTION: I’m not asking you to relitigate it; I’m just —

MS. HARF: Can I finish?

QUESTION: Yes.

MS. HARF: Thank you. I’m not going to go back into internal deliberations about whether we were going to and wanted to put a new SOFA in place, something that happened, what, two years ago now, two and a half years ago now? I just don’t think that’s a beneficial discussion to have from this podium. The President was very clear when he came into office that our goal was to end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home. I just don’t think it serves any purpose to re-litigate those discussions from, what, 2011, in 2014.

QUESTION: I’m not asking you to relitigate it. Was the Administration not interested in concluding a SOFA with the Iraqi Government?

MS. HARF: I’m just not going to go back down that road. I don’t —

QUESTION: Well, the answer is yes, okay? And I don’t see why you can’t say —

MS. HARF: Do you want my job, then? You want to answer?

QUESTION: No, but I would prefer that you not try to sidestep. I mean, it’s a pretty —

MS. HARF: I’m not trying to sidestep it.

QUESTION: Yeah, you —

MS. HARF: We’re focused on 2014 and where we go from here. A discussion or debate about what we may or may not have —

QUESTION: His question was, “How do you respond —

MS. HARF: — about what we may or not have wanted in 2011 —

QUESTION: Hold —

MS. HARF: — is not relevant to the discussion today, Matt.

QUESTION: It’s completely relevant —

MS. HARF: It’s just not.

QUESTION: — to the question that he asked —

MS. HARF: I disagree.

QUESTION: — which was that critics– his question was critics suggest or say, claim, accuse the Administration of abandoning Iraq. And —

MS. HARF: And I disagreed with the premise.

QUESTION: Okay. And I’m asking you —

MS. HARF: Because I said —

QUESTION: Was the Administration interested in concluding a SOFA with the Iraqi Government or not back several years ago?

MS. HARF: I’m just not going to – I’m not going to go back down that road. What I’ve said is that you don’t define being —

QUESTION: Okay. You’re looking for a – you think that I’m trying to set a trap for you, and I’m not. I’m just trying to get a straight answer, and it’s a historical fact that you were involved in negotiations with the Iraq —

MS. HARF: Absolutely. I’m not saying we weren’t involved in them.

QUESTION: Okay. Well, then, what’s wrong?

MS. HARF: But you were asking what we wanted, what we didn’t want, what the content of the discussions were.