"Barwari, whose relationship with the US military began in 1991 in northern Iraq, benefited greatly from America’s war"
Oh, the CIA ASSET is asking us to STAY?
"Iraqi special forces say US troops should stay" July 03, 2011|By Tim Arango, New York Times
BAGHDAD - In darkness and dressed in black, the US and Iraqi special operations commandos navigated the dense urban neighborhood here and approached a house they believed to be a hide-out for two brothers suspected of carrying out assassinations and car bombings.
As the Iraqis bashed in the door, the sound of shattered glass and screams pierced the nighttime stillness. The Americans, having spent years taking charge on such missions, waited outside until the house was secure.
The important thing, a US sergeant said after the raid, is that the Iraqis took the lead on this operation. He spoke on the condition that he be identified only by rank to comply with the ground rules allowing a reporter access to a US Army Special Forces unit. “They are the ones doing the dirty work,’’ he said.
But Iraqi and US commanders worry that this crucial military legacy of the war may be at risk now that US forces are withdrawing this year under an agreement between the countries.
Americans say the Iraq Special Operations Forces, deliberately balanced with the country’s main sects and ethnicities, are more capable than the Iraqi Army and may be critical in preventing a resilient insurgency from exploding into a sectarian civil war.
Even as few Iraqi politicians are willing to admit publicly that they need US help, Iraqi soldiers say that US troops must stay longer to continue training and advising.
“The Americans need to stay because we don’t have control over our borders,’’ said Major General Fadhel al-Barwari, commander of the Iraq Special Operations Forces.
The commandos make up a tight-knit community where relationships between Iraqis and Americans are especially strong, having been nurtured over multiple deployments. In some cases, the Americans here are on their eighth or ninth rotations.
The senior Iraqi military leaders have advised Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that some troops should stay.
Even though combat has officially been declared over, Iraq still looks like a war to the Special Operations units scattered around the country....
US Special Operations units have been training and equipping an Iraqi counterterrorism force almost from the beginning of the war in 2003. Barwari was made to do push-ups eight years ago by some of the Americans who still advise his unit. Today he directs near-nightly raids with the help of the Americans.
Barwari, whose relationship with the US military began in 1991 in northern Iraq, benefited greatly from America’s war here, and in its closing days he frets about what will become of his country without the US troops.
If Americans stay, he said, “He won’t be fighting beside me, but he will give us air support.’’
“There are many things we don’t have knowledge about,’’ he added.
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Yeah, how can you refuse that?
"US offers to keep 10,000 troops in Iraq" Associated Press / July 6, 2011
BAGHDAD - The White House is offering to keep up to 10,000 troops in Iraq next year, US officials said, despite opposition from many Iraqis and key Democratic Party allies who demand that President Obama bring the American military home as promised....
The White House has already worked out options to keep between 8,500 and 10,000 active-duty troops to continue training Iraqi security forces during 2012, said senior Obama administration and US military officials.
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"Iraq needs US military help past 2011, foreign minister says; No deal in place yet to keep troops after Dec. pullout" July 28, 2011|By Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s foreign minister said yesterday that his country needs US help to train its military past the end of 2011, hinting at a possible deal with the United States....
Hoshyar Zebari and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appear to be preparing the public for some type of US military presence in Iraq past 2011....
The United States has offered to keep as many as 10,000 troops in Iraq to help train the country’s security forces, and many Iraqi officials privately have indicated they would like a more robust US military presence. However, such a large presence is politically very difficult to sell to an Iraqi public already tired of eight years of war.
The prime minister’s own allies in the government, the ones most credited with helping him win reelection last year, are followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. He has made ridding Iraq of any US military presence a cornerstone of his rhetoric, and his forces have repeatedly attacked American bases and convoys in recent months.
Then Sadr is an idiot because attacking us is making us stay.
Either that or the paper is full of bullshit.
The likelihood is the latter.
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Maybe this will convince them to keep us:
"12 killed, 28 wounded in twin bombings outside Iraqi bank; Blasts might have targeted soldiers" July 29, 2011|By Tim Arango, New York Times
BAGHDAD - Two explosions struck outside a bank in Tikrit yesterday, just as soldiers were lining up to cash their paychecks. The first report on casualties indicated that 12 people died and 28 were wounded, a local official said.
The first blast was a car bomb, which exploded in a parking area adjacent to the bank. As people rushed to the scene, the second blast came when a man in military uniform detonated his explosives-laden vest. While the attack appeared to be aimed at the soldiers lining up at the bank, most of the casualties were civilians, according to an official.
“We didn’t expect this to happen here, because most of the people were just ordinary citizens,’’ said Majeed Mohammed, 47, a farmer who suffered shrapnel wounds.
He said that he was in the front of the bank line, and that most of those who were killed had been standing farther back in the line.
The attack, in Saddam Hussein’s hometown, punctured weeks of relative calm here as Ramadan approaches. Over the past several months, the main security threat in Baghdad has been the assassinations of government officials and military officers, many by silenced weapons. The northern city of Kirkuk has seen a spate of kidnappings for ransom lately; several doctors have been among those seized.
Intelligence agency assassins, etc.
No group claimed immediate responsibility for yesterday’s attacks.
No kidding?
As violence has diminished across Iraq relative to a few years ago, it is still one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and mass casualty attacks of the sort that occurred yesterday are still frequent, especially in Tikrit, a Sunni-dominated city north of Baghdad....
Yup, ALL of a SUDDEN after THREE YEARS of "relative" calm, just as AmeriKa is allegedly headed out the door.... SIGH!!
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"US review finds Iraq deadlier now than a year ago" July 30, 2011|Lara Jakes, Associated Press
Frequent bombings, assassinations and a resurgence in violence by Shiite militias have made Iraq more dangerous now than it was just a year ago, a U.S. government watchdog concludes in a report released Saturday.
Yeah, WHATEVER PILE is needed to FIT the AGENDA on a GIVEN DAY!
The findings come during what U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart W. Bowen Jr. called “a summer of uncertainty’’ in Baghdad over whether American forces will stay past a year-end withdrawal deadline and continue military aid for the unstable nation.
“Iraq remains an extraordinarily dangerous place to work,’’ Bowen concluded in his 172-page quarterly report to Congress and the Obama administration on progress — and setbacks — in Iraq. “It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago.’’
The report cited the deaths of 15 U.S. soldiers in June, the bloodiest month for the U.S. military in Iraq in two years. Nearly all of them were killed in attacks by Shiite militias bent on forcing out American troops on schedule.
?????????????
Then WHY WOULD they be GIVING US PAUSE by RISING UP just as we were hitting the exits?
Yeah, they WAITED ALL THIS TIME when ATTACKING US over the LAST FOUR YEARS would have put TREMENDOUS PRESSURE on American leaders to END IT!
Sorry, mouthpiece media, but I AM NO LONGER BUYING the BULLSHIT PROPAGANDA!!
It also noted an increase in rockets launched against the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, where government offices and foreign embassies are located, as well as constant assassination attempts against Iraqi political leaders, security forces and judges.
Additionally, the report called the northeastern province of Diyala, which borders Iran and has an often volatile mix of Sunni and Shiite Muslims and Kurds among its residents, “very unstable’’ with frequent bombings that bring double-digit death tolls.
Then how come I RARELY READ ABOUT such things, and WHY HAVE THEY BEEN INTERMARRYING for CENTURIES?
Bowen accused the U.S. military of glossing over Iraq’s instability, noting a statement in late May by the U.S. military that described Iraq’s security trends as “very, very positive’’ — but only when compared to 2007, when the country was on the brink of civil war. In contrast, Bowen talked of “the very real fragility’’ of national security in Iraq today....
Now THAT is probably the ONE TRUTH in the whole article right there.
The MILITARY LIES!!
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And WHY CUT ALL THIS when it was IN MY PRINTED PAPER?
"On Saturday, a patrol of U.S. and Iraqi forces came under fire in a village north of Baghdad and killed three people. Clashes between the security forces and villagers broke out while solders were conducting a raid outside Balad, 50 miles north of the capital, said Ali Abdul-Rahman, a spokesman for the Salahuddin provincial governor.
Iraq's prime minister said Saturday he was reviving a stalled deal to buy multi-million-dollar fighter jets from the United States and affirmed the need for American trainers to help Iraqi forces operate and maintain the 36 F-16s.
However, Nouri al-Maliki avoided saying whether the trainers would be active-duty troops or private contractors - sidestepping the key question of whether American military personnel will be asked to remain past an end-of-year.
The fighter jet deal, which al-Maliki announced at a press conference, more than doubles the number of aircraft Iraq initially planned to buy....
It was a turnabout from earlier this year, when Baghdad abandoned the deal and decided instead that it would spend hundreds of millions of dollars on food rations for poor Iraqis.
FLASHBACK:
"Citing its food needs, Iraq delays buying fighter jets" by Rebecca Santana, Associated Press / February 15, 2011
BAGHDAD — Iraq is delaying the purchase of 18 US fighter jets because of budget problems and has decided to funnel the money into food for the poor instead, the Iraqi government’s spokesman said yesterday.
Another rea$on for invading Iraq: create a new market for U.$. weapon$ manufacturer$.
Iraq, like many other Middle Eastern countries since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, is under pressure to demonstrate its commitment to helping its own people.
Why would a U.S.-INSPIRED DEMOCRACY have to be worrying about that?
But delaying the purchase leaves Iraq, which relies on departing American forces to protect its skies, vulnerable....
So we will just have to hang around, huh?
Iraq relies on US planes and drones to protect its skies, and the head of the country’s armed forces has said Iraq will not be ready to protect its airspace until 2020....
I'm already exhausted by eight years (can it really have been that long?), and now they throw out that it could be another decade?
Iraq has been rattled by the protests in Tunisia and Egypt, which toppled governments there. In small protests across Iraq, demonstrators have vented their anger at the Iraqi government, which they say is corrupt, and demanded improved services and more jobs. Hundreds rallied yesterday in Baghdad.
Despite having some of the world’s largest oil reserves, Iraq endures electricity shortages that make summer nearly unbearable, while winter leaves people shivering.
I was told we would be making things better for Iraqis after destroying their nation and killing them; you mean that was just another lie?
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, vowed to address the problems.
He sounds like all the other worn-out dictators of the region.
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All governments are shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Al-Maliki did not say when the purchase of the F-16s would proceed, where the money would come from or how it would affect other government programs already in place....
I think I know.
Al-Maliki says the decision ultimately will be put to parliament. While many officials from both nations believe Iraq is still too unstable to protect itself without U.S. help, keeping a large presence of American troops may be difficult to sell to an Iraqi public tired of eight years of war....
What about the U.S. PUBLIC? Don't WE COUNT for ANYTHING?
--more--"
Related: Iraq ‘less safe’ than a year ago, US inspector says (By Ed O’Keefe, Washington Post)
And just in case you didn't get the message:
"Back-to-back bombs kill 9 in western Iraq" August 04, 2011|Associated Press
BAGHDAD - Two bombs targeting police exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi yesterday, killing nine people and wounding 13, Iraqi officials said.
The bombs exploded in central Ramadi, with the second one going off just steps away from the first after police and other people gathered on the scene. Staggering the blasts is a common tactic by insurgents who hope to lure in rescuers and onlookers with the first blast to maximize the carnage with the second explosion....
Ramadi, the provincial capital, used to be one of the strongholds of the Al Qaeda-led insurgency. In recent years, the city has seen a return to normalcy as violence has tapered off.
But militants are still able to carry out intermittent attacks, and police, military, and government officials are often targeted because the militants view them as cooperating with the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad.
Many people are worried such violence will rebound if American forces leave the country at the end of this year as expected....
Have you GOT the MESSAGE, Americans? We are STAYING!!
Yesterday morning, after hours of negotiations, Iraqi political leaders announced they would begin negotiations with the United States about keeping an American force in Iraq into next year.
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