Time to Take All American Troops Out of Iraq (by the end of the year)
Patricia Morris | Aug 11, 2011 |
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Photo courtesy of thepilot.com
Despite White House promises and a signed agreement to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by December 31, 2011, Pentagon Officials, such as Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have encouraged the Iraqi government to consider allowing a contingency force of roughly 10,000 U.S. troops to remain and train Iraqi security forces.
The Iraqi government would have to make a formal request for U.S. troops to stay past the deadline and President Talabani and Prime Minister Al-Maliki have agreed to begin negotiations. But the verdict could tear the fragile government apart.
Both Sunni and Shi’a blocs in the parliament have spoken out against the troop extension and have warned that it could incite further insurgent violence. Muqtada Al-Sadr, an important Al-Maliki ally and former head of the Mahdi Army- turned politician, wants the U.S. out. On his website, in Arabic and English, he wrote to U.S. forces, “[G]o back to your families who are waiting for your arrival impatiently, so that you and we, as well, lead a peaceful life together.” However, if U.S. troops stay, Al-Sadr threatened to reunite his army, which caused much of the insurgent violence up to 2007, and target the “occupier.”
Essay: The End of Interventionism
John Isaacs | Aug 08, 2011 | 0 Written by John Isaacs, appears in ADA Today:
United States involvement in the Libyan war may turn out to be the straw that broke the political and philosophical back of the military interventionists.
Most of the country having long turned against George W. Bush’s war of choice in Iraq, President Obama has been continuing the process of withdrawal from that (at least tenuously) pacified country. Disaffection with the Iraq war hurt the Republicans at the polls in 2006 and 2008.
As for the Afghan war, many on the left and right were willing to reserve judgment on President Obama’s actions early in his administration because he had inherited a weak position from his predecessor. Besides, Afghanistan—in contrast to Iraq—was the “good” war, one directly related to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
But the effort to oust long-time Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi means the United States is engaged in three military conflicts at the same time, to say nothing of predator drone strikes in other countries. While liberals are split on the Libyan conflict, the expanding wars are widely perceived to be military interventionism run amuck.
Security Matters, Libya, Afghanistan, Merkley, McGovern, Iraq (all tags)
Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Iraq
John Isaacs | Jul 22, 2011 | 0 By Lt. General Robert Gard (USA, Ret.)
Maintaining U.S. troops in a hostile environment when an overwhelming majority of the population is adamantly opposed to their presence is not only foolhardy but also counter-productive, especially when there is an agreement with the host nation government to withdraw them by a date certain.
On 17 November 2008, the governments of the United States and Iraq signed two landmark documents: a “Strategic Framework for a Relationship of Friendship and Cooperation ….” and an “Agreement … on the Withdrawal of United States Forces from Iraq and the Organization of Their Activities during Their Temporary Presence in Iraq [Status of Forces].” Both entered into force on 1 January 2009, very close to the conclusion of the presidency of George W. Bush.
The Framework agreement stipulates that the United States shall not “seek or request permanent bases or a permanent military presence in Iraq,” and the Status of Forces agreement specifies that “All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011.” While the Bush administration clearly preferred an agreement that did not specify a specific date for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, the Iraqi government insisted on it as a key provision of the formal Status of Forces agreement.
