"US drops plans to extend Iraq stay" October 16, 2011|By Lara Jakes and Rebecca Santana, Associated Press
BAGHDAD - The United States is abandoning plans to keep troops in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline, the Associated Press has learned. The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of US involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.
The decision ends months of uncertainty by US officials over whether to stick to a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008 or to negotiate a new security agreement to ensure that gains made and more than 4,400 American military lives lost since March 2003 do not go to waste.
I hate to say it, but they already have. The whole thing was based on lies. And what of the millions of dead Iraqis? Will they even enter the view of the AmeriKan media?
In recent months, Washington has been discussing with Iraqi leaders the possibility of several thousand American troops remaining to continue training Iraqi security forces.
But a senior Obama administration official in Washington confirmed yesterday that all American troops will leave Iraq except for about 160 active-duty soldiers attached to the US Embassy.
A senior US military official confirmed the departure and said the withdrawal could allow future but limited US military training missions in Iraq if requested. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Throughout the discussions, Iraqi leaders have adamantly refused to give US troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the Americans have refused to stay without it. Iraq’s leadership has been split on whether it wanted US forces to stay. Some argued the further training and US help was vital, particularly to protect Iraq’s airspace and gather security intelligence. But others have deeply opposed any US troop presence, including Shi’ite militiamen who have threatened attacks on any US forces who remain.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has told US military officials that he does not have the votes in Parliament to provide immunity to the American trainers, the US military official said.
A western diplomatic official in Iraq said Maliki told international diplomats he will not bring the immunity issue to Parliament because lawmakers will not approve it.
Iraqi lawmakers excel at last-minute agreements. But with little wiggle room on the immunity issue and the US military needing to move equipment out as soon as possible, a last-minute change between now and Dec. 31 seems almost out of the question.
Regardless of whether US troops are here or not, there will be a massive American diplomatic presence.
The US Embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world, and the State Department will have offices in Basra, Irbil, and Kirkuk as well as other locations around the country where contractors will train Iraqi forces on US military equipment they are purchasing.
About 5,000 security contractors and personnel will be tasked with helping protect American diplomats and facilities around the country, the State Department has said.
Oh, the TROOPS are leaving but the MERCENARIES are STAYING!
The US Embassy will still have a handful of Marines for protection and 157 US military personnel in charge of facilitating weapons sales to Iraq. Those are standard functions at most American embassies around the world and would be considered part of the regular embassy staff.
Weapons sales are a main function of our diplomats and embassy?
When the 2008 agreement requiring all US forces leave Iraq was passed, many US officials assumed it would inevitably be renegotiated so that American forces could stay longer.
So did I.
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The United States said repeatedly this year it would entertain an offer from the Iraqis to have a small force stay behind, and the Iraqis said they would like American military help.
In other words, we were begging them to let us stay.
But as the year wore on and the number of American troops that Washington was suggesting could stay behind dropped, it became increasingly clear that a US troop presence was not a sure thing.
The issue of legal protection for the Americans was the deal-breaker.
Iraqis are still angry over incidents such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal or Haditha, when US troops killed Iraqi civilians in Anbar Province, and want American troops subject to Iraqi law.
Or the Blackwater killings.
Yeah, the Iraqis are so unreasonable for not giving foreign soldiers immunity for killing their friends and families.
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