Setting the Record Straight on the U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Iraq
Following President Obama’s promise that all American troops will be home from Iraq by Christmas time, there have been numerous misconceptions circulated in media reports about what is precisely going on regarding the U.S. withdrawal.
To begin with, there is a widespread notion that, in the words of one report in the Guardian, Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki “[h]ad wanted to keep some U.S. troops in Iraq. … But he had to bow to pressure from pro-Iranian politicians and others in his coalition government who wanted all U.S. troops out.”
These remarks are highly misleading, to put it mildly.
Here is what actually transpired: the U.S. military had for quite some time been intent on keeping between ten to twenty thousand troops in the country beyond the withdrawal deadline stipulated in the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) originally drawn up between the Bush administration and the Iraqi government.
However, with the exception of the Kurdish parties, all Iraqi political factions were opposed to this idea from the start, including al-Maliki and his State of Law bloc.
Nonetheless, in August, Iraq’s various parties — excluding the followers of the pro-Iran Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — held a meeting and agreed in principle on the idea of allowing a few thousand American soldiers to stay beyond the SOFA deadline and provide additional training for the Iraqi security forces.
The two reasons behind this desire for further American training are that the Iraqi military is seen as incapable of defending the country from foreign threats and that there is a lack of Iraqi know-how on the use of advanced weaponry, such as fighter jets, which the military has recently been purchasing. In fact, the Iraqi military estimates that further training will be needed until at least 2020.
The Iraqi politicians also agreed, however, on the condition that American troops should not be granted immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, primarily because of memories of U.S. abuses like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
This principle was reaffirmed in another meeting in October (again, excluding the Sadrists). In any case, the primary purpose of the October meeting was not to discuss the impending U.S. withdrawal, but to try (unsuccessfully, as usual) to resolve the problems in forming the Iraqi government, a process that’s been going on since the March 2010 elections.
The debate over immunity has proven to be the main obstacle in negotiations between Washington and Baghdad regarding keeping troops beyond 2011. It was an Iraqi consensus nationalist position and not any pro-Iranian opposition to the U.S. presence that proved the stumbling block.
Even given all these issues, however, it is not necessarily true that no U.S. troops will remain on Iraqi soil after December 31. Iraq and the United States still agree on American soldiers remaining to train Iraqi security forces. General Babakir Zebari, the Iraqi army’s chief of staff; al-Maliki; and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have all issued statements to this effect.
Thus, despite the initial failure of talks, there is still a significant chance of a small contingent force of a few hundred troops — rather than a few thousand — staying as “trainers.”
Discussion is still taking place as the Iraqi government and the Obama administration try to find a compromise for a loophole on the immunity issues. U.S. soldiers would not have immunity status but trainers would get it by technically working for the State Department or NATO, which already has a 200-member training mission that will stay at least until 2013.
And if this solution fails, Iraq will probably hire ex-U.S. soldiers as civilian contractors to provide further training.
In light of all the misreporting in the media on these happenings, the most important point is that Iraq is setting the terms of its relationship with the United States as a sovereign nation, and is not acting at the behest of a foreign power, namely Iran.
Iran’s government has had no role in influencing the Iraqi political factions’ stances on the troop extension. In short, Baghdad is simply doing whatever it wants. A key underlying principle is simply this: Iraq doesn’t want to be either too dependent on the United States or on Iran.
The Iraqi government will use the United States to ensure its sovereignty vis-à-vis Iran while insisting on showing that it isn’t a U.S. protectorate. This strategy is likely to work and is not only in Iraq’s but also in the U.S. interest.
More from Michael Totten: Did We Lose in Iraq? No, and Here’s Why
Saddam was a secular Sunni dictator. Iraq is 67% Shia and 33% Sunni. The Shiites will now take revenge on the Sunnis for what Saddam did to them. Iran will take over Iraq… We can thank George Dumbo Bush and his neocon misadvisers for recreating the ancient Persian Empire…
Sadly, I must agree with you. The death nell was when Paul Bremer dismantled the Iraqi Army in order to punish the Baathists. Had He kept the Army intact, there would have been no insurgency.
Having served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and I am writing this from Central Asia as we speak, I am appalled at the waste in lives and materiel. Total withdrawl is just rubbing salt in the wounds.
And believe me, these people do not deserve the sacrifice that our current greatest generation is giving. How many more legs will be lost before the last of us pulls out. The enemy even knows the date we will leave. Do the math.
Doesn’t this pullout make it more likely that Israel will attack Iran before the year is out?
The Arab Spring is the beginning of the end for the Crusaders, Zionists and Infidels in the Middle East. For several decades the Great Satan and the Little Satan have installed and propped up illegitimate stooges to repress us and cooperate with them. That is now coming to an end. We are now overthrowing the pro-Western and pro-Zionist puppets that you decadent infidels have installed and propped up for the last few decades.
A New Middle East is emerging. The pro-Western and pro-Zionist illegitimate dictators are being overthrown, one by one. And in their place we are establishing Islamic states ruled by the Sharia, from Egypt to Yemen, from Turkey to Somalia, from Libya to Syria, from The Land of the Two Holy Mosques to Sudan, from Tunisia to Gaza, from Jordan to Lebanon, from Indonesia to Pakistan, from Iran to Bangladesh, and many other places (and one day in Europe, and eventually in America).
It is our time now. This is the Great Awakening for Islam. We are returning to our roots. We live in Muslim countries, and our laws will reflect our religion — that’s natural. You infidels are dying. You infidels are retreating. You decadent infidels are bankrupt and your fraudulent economic system will soon collapse. Your fraudulent financial and banking system are destroying your countries, with their haram loans with interest which brings about exploding debts which you can never pay off. Your societies are collapsing. Islam is spreading throughout the world. We are on the march. Islam is on the rise. Christianity is dying. We have lots of children. You decadent infidels kill your children. We will rule over you.
We are also taking over Europe. We don’t even need to use nuclear bombs to conquer you decadent infidels. We already have nearly 50 million of our brothers and sisters in the infidel nations of Europe, who are growing rapidly in number, while the infidels are aging, shrinking, and dying, and are turning it into Eurabia. Our women’s wombs are our greatest weapon. We are conquering you in the maternity wards and kindergartens. You can’t stop it. Your grandchildren will be living under Sharia. It is inevitable. Your granddaughters will wear the burqa. Your infidel lifestyle has proven to be a total and absolute failure. We have the answer. You degenerate Westerners way of life is collapsing all around you. You are unable to solve your own problems. We have a better way of life. You will join us. Either voluntarily, or against your will.
We defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan…and we have now defeated you imperialist American infidels in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are gaining strength every day, while you infidels are becoming weaker and weaker. You are no match for us. We will defeat you easily. You are not ready for what is coming. You don’t stand a chance. It’s not too late. You can still join us. Time is running out for you infidels.
We will soon overthrow the American-backed dictator in The Land of the Two Holy Mosques, and we will cut off your infidels oil supply, and your economy will come crashing down. We are going to take on the fake illegitimate Zionist regime…and when we are done with them, we will come for you imperialist Americans, on U.S. soil, and we will fight you in the streets, house to house, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city, until the Sharia is established and you decadent infidels are subjugated. Allahu Akbar!
LovelyEarth, is that you? Hmm, your Islamist screed-parody is not as good as your liberal ones. Needs some work.
It’s Reconquista in rag, or is it drag?
Do you realize how easy it is to kick muslims asses?
once you are unable to rely on the western useful idiots to camouflage your intent, you will be slaughtered wholesale by better trained, more intelligent, easier organized people who love life more than you love death..
your self imposed shariah zones will be walled off and you will be starved to death.. you idiots with your need to keep najis kafirs away from yourselves is your undoing.. it will be like shooting fish in a barrel.. morons..
I can’t wait for your big reveal.. There are many many silent Vlad Tepes’ waiting for your attempt to make a mass push for enslavement..
Go on.. make our millennium..
This is satire….
I’d rather have the Iraqis kick us out than have them hanging around our necks indefinitely as a dependent client state. We spent 50 years propping up Western Europe with one hand and a bizarre menagerie of dysfunctional Third World cesspools with the other. Time to start treating everybody else like grownups and letting them solve their own problems. America first. No foreign entanglements. Amen.
Amen
Hello stupid Islamist: What are you going to do when you can’t feed your own people? You can’t even repair your own vehicles and weapons. You haven’t had an original idea in more than 1000 years. You and your people will die by the thousands, begging the West to save your sorry asses. And we probably will for one simple reason – we’re BETTER than you.
This is a failure of diplomacy, pure and simple. Everything the Clinton State Department has done has been a failure. Bush did not have trouble getting a new Status of Forces Agreement back in ’08. Obama and Clinton cannot do even the simplest things of diplomacy correctly, much less something trickier like this. (Of course, Bush was stronger, and more importantly, he is far more likable than Obama or Clinton.)
So, they sell it as deciding to bring the troops home, rather than the failure of allowing them to stay. I am for getting the troops home, because the prize of victory has been squandered. However, I do not want to see them touting it as a success, when they were trying to accomplish the opposite. It is just another lie to cover for yet another failure.
According to Mr. Jawad, if you work for NATO you get immunity. If you are a soldier of the US Army that overthrew the oppressive dictator and made a free Iraqi government possible, no immunity. The same gratitude we got from the liberated countries of Europe. The same gratitude and loyalty we can expect from every other country we protect with our Armed Forces and support with financial aid. Case in point, 35 dead American sailors aboard the USS Liberty,when Israel thought our spy ship would detect activity in the Sinai related to their nuclear weapons during the Six Day War in the Sixties. Sure we were allies, but national self-interest came first.
Nations put their own interests first; not always true for the USA. Start bringing home our servicemen from the 150 countries in which they are deployed, except where they are necessary to secure American vital interests such as ready deployment bases, or killing jihadists who plan attacks on Americans.
Why are we still in Korea? A military hospital and an airbase each in Japan and Germany would be sufficient. We don’t need infantry in Korea and armored battalions in Germany.
American interests, not foreign entanglements. Let’s not ask any more American soldiers to fight and die to secure foreign governments as we are doing in Afghanistan. Bring them home and bomb the hell out of any terrorists planning attacks on us or our military.
RE: the Liberty incident, can’t you conspiracy theorists get your paranoia right, it was because the Israelis didn’t want the US to know they were invading the Sinai or something that the Liberty was attacked. And the 12 US and Israeli investigating commissions were all created as part of the grand cover up, as well as the releasing of the Israeli pilots radio conversations made during the attack.
I’m sure we can rule out a friendly fire accident in the confusion of war. That just doesn’t make sense to anyone as insightful as you.
In a signed affidavit released at a Capitol Hill news conference, retired Capt. Ward Boston said Johnson and McNamara told those heading the Navy’s inquiry to “conclude that the attack was a case of ‘mistaken identity’ despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”
It was “one of the classic all-American cover-ups,” said retired Admiral Thomas Moorer, a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman who spent a year investigating the attack as part of an independent panel he formed with other former military officials. The panel also included a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James Akins.
Torpedo hole in USS Liberty
“Why would our government put Israel’s interests ahead of our own?” Moorer asked from his wheelchair at the news conference. He was chief of naval operations at the time of the attack.
Moorer, who has long held that the attack was a deliberate act, wants Congress to investigate. [Newsday]
“Why would our government put Israel’s interests ahead of our own?”
Just goes to show how long and how deep that the American ‘ruling class’ has been working with the muslim enemy..
culminating in this utterly traitorous Regime we are witness to today..
America’s best interest is wiping the muslims out of Arabia and reducing mecca to glass.. but there are too many in the ‘ruling class’ that love the evils of islam and the slavery that islam inculcates..
The ‘ruling class’ doesn’t want islam to end.. they want it to grow and complete the enslavement of the world..
When the dust settles from the wars against islamic imperialism there will be a new American Inquisition to root out the islam lovers.. it’s inevitable.. it’s natural.. only it won’t be a central authority that roots out the islamic plague.. it will be individuals simply cleansing the filth and degradation as they work to restore true freedom once again..
The reasons given for the attack on the USS Liberty are varied and are only theories, and I’m sorry I even suggested one of them. BUT the facts of the attack are real and one fact is that the ship was identified as American at least two hours before the attack began. Among those who didn’t believe the Israeli explanation of mistaken identification were Sec.of State Dean Rusk, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Moorer, and the surviving officers and men of the USS Liberty who are still calling for a Congressional investigation. Google USS Liberty and read the balanced Wickapedia article, for starters. This isn’t conspiracy territory, it’s recent American history, open to those who want to know.
We probably both agree that a cover up is very likely happening right now concerning Fast and Furious. Research and you’ll that Pres. Johnson and Sec. McNamara covered up the USS Liberty Incident. What have you got to lose?
True. We don’t like loose ends and we expect historians to tie them all up for us. Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work that way. We won’t get a chance to know the truth about this incident until everybody involved is dead, nobody cares anymore, and the states involved open the relevant archives. Even then it won’t be a sure thing. Sometimes stuff just doesn’t make any sense.
Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad today-killing 18 and wounding how many more.
Point is-Iraq has an air force now,F-16′s? And, a Navy, and hundreds of thousands of well-equipped troops with tanks, and weapons-yet,terrorists or
bombmakers are striking at well everywhere.
What about the threat by Sadr-about going after the (almost billion dollar)US embassy in Baghdad-after US troops leave?
And,this is “dictated” to US now-before we leave.Shhh-hh.
The Iraqis are grateful and loyal,sure are.
The Jihad and the Sharia are unstoppable!
nah.. just self-defeating..
don’t worry.. you will be doing us a favor by taking your veils off for the western world to view your ugly mugs in full and complete mohammad the terrorist mode..
The end of the fake illegitimate Zionist regime is near. We will liberate Al-Quds from the Zionist occupier. The pathetic Zionist entity is drowning in the sea of the Islamic Great Awakening.
knock yourselves out.. say bye bye to mecca and your precious borg cube..
no hajj, no islam.. would allah will the end of the hajj?
you will find out soon.. you have to.. the ‘final hour’ is all you dopes can think about in those genetically impaired pea brains of yours..
I just want to point out that Iraqi Shiites are not the same as Iranian. Less we forget, Iran and Iraq fought a brutal war during the 80′s. It had everything, from massive tank battles, suicide squads, and wholesale use of chemical weapons. Heck, 10 years after the war ended, Iraq and Iran were still refusing to turn over POWs. What influence in Iraq that Iran currently maintains will evaporate most like when the US begins the withdraw (at least in my mind). Ask any Iraqi who was alive during the war and they will admit they HATE Iranians.
I don’t know really…except pretty much the entire Middle East pretty much hate each other. Arabs hate Jews and Persians, and pretty much vice versa. Everybody, including Turkey seems to beat up on the Kurds, and for the life of me, I wish we would just get off oil so we don’t have to deal with the region anymore at all.
Sad thing, after I got from my first deployment to the region, I walked in on my roommates girlfriend watching that horrid “Sweet 16″ show on MTV. I realized then and there I didn’t recognize American culture anymore.
What you have outlined is, to me, the “elephant in the room” where they all hate one another for various reasons. Tribal, religious, doesn’t matter. They have found excuses to kill each other for hundreds of years and will continue that behavior no matter the incentive to stop.
Add to that, they reject Western thinking categorically. Thus, their insistence on preventing immunity from Iraqi “law” wherever possible. This speaks volumes to me.
But, at the end of the day, they will continue to think up new and exciting ways to pursue jihad, a word I wish I never became acquainted with as my spell-checker now recognizes it whereas 5 years ago, it did not. I despise peoples from the middle-east. Islamaphobe? You bet your sweet ass I am.
Nothing has shown me that they are even remotely interested in peace. Their own doctrine indicates that they must fight, at some level. So your rag-headed checkout person at Walmart is ideologically opposed to you from the very start and is simply working there, as allowed by is-lame, to further their “cause”.
They want the world. And to them, there is a certain energy they can live off of by hating everyone else. They have mastered false-fronts and lying for centuries….and that further indicates to me what this nation’s current president is, ideologically. He lies with such ease and to further the cause of is-lame that it’s obvious to me.
And, it’s therefore no stretch of the imagination that he considers all his “fellow foot-soldiers” in the democrat party to be infidels and useful idiots. All of them have a vested interest in destroying this once-greatest nation. If for no other reason than to fight over the spoils of what’s left.
To see it on this scale is horrifying. All done covertly, complete with their egos letting it slip occasionally as to what they are really doing. And knowing that “you can’t do anything about it”.
They have the courts, they have the media. Or so they think. But I think it’ll get a lot worse and I’ll be close to the permanent dirt-nap before it ever even starts to turn around.
Yes, we are the majority…the conservatives. But they have worked very hard to neuter us. I however, don’t put up with their nonsense. I get in the other line when burqa-garbed losers are in my line…and I won’t get into the line with the muslim checkout boob. I openly laugh at them as I walk by them in the store. I like them to know I do not welcome their cult in my country.
Kill them? No…but run them off. They are not welcome citizens here. In fact, illegal Christian Mexicans are probably closer to the ideal US citizen than they are. For one thing, they are often very strict Catholics. The desperation in coming to the US to escape a corrupt Mexican government is understandable…and very often, they keep it low-key but the sticking point is that they are here illegally.
Muslims….might be here legally. But they, too have either voluntarily adopted a religion that is intentionally bigoted and perpetuates same, or they have come here from sand-land and refuse to assimilate; Espousing their way as “better”. Yet…if it’s so much better, why are you here at all?
It’s a monumental lie and people seem to hate the truth. I’ve no doubt that my muslim neighbor, should I die at the hands of some terrorist(s) would just shrug their shoulders and say “allahu akbar” or whatever that goofy excuse they use for a prayer is.
From its inception, it was designed, implemented and managed as a cult. You can’t get out, under penalty of death. Now…is that the basis for any “religion of peace”?
What an ungrateful bunch of turds. Just another reason to leave and let these moronic S.O.B.s twist in the wind and be taken over by Iran. Did you notice that the above article said that, “However, with the exception of the Kurdish parties, all Iraqi political factions were opposed to this idea from the start, including al-Maliki and his State of Law bloc.” Why were the Kurds the only ones that supported having American troops around? Because they know the truth. Those people have been attacked and abused for centuries and they know that when the Americans leave they’re going to get whacked by Turkey, Iran, and the Shias and Sunnis in Iraq. We should have made a separate deal with the Kurds and kept some bases with them. They always were the only people who actually liked us and are the only dependable allies in the area. The rest of Iraq can really go float.
Two years from now, Iraq will either be engulfed in a civil war or it will collapse and be annexed by Iran. I want Obama to stand up next year, after the Shias start to take over, and tell the American public why we ever went into Iraq. And if that idiot says, “Well, I never supported the war in the first place,” then he should have had the stones to take the troops out in 2009 instead of waiting two more years to pull them out. All of the blood and treasure that was spent in Iraq will be lost in about two years, just like it was lost when South Vietnam fell to North Vietnam. And if the Sunni and Shia jerks in Iraq think that we’re actually going to go back into Iraq to save them from Iran, they’re dreaming. All I can say to the morons in Iraq is to start reading up on your history of South Vietnam. You’re going to need it.
Diablo, thanks for your service. These wars are New world Order wars. Can anyone really explain to me why we went into Libya? they say it was humanitarian but you experienced war…How many little Libyan kids and innocents do we kill and maim with NATO bombs. Do we even know who the heck the Rebels are? They are killing blacks who work in Libya by the scores, the cities are completely in shambles from our bombs. These wars are out of control. Our government and most of our leaders, of both parties are out of control.
We have to unwind our huge government, unwind these wars, drill and mine for our own energy. All of our uneeded servicemen could be making $80,000/yr working in the oilfields!
I am not a Tea partier, not an Occupy Wall Street guy, I AM AN AMERICAN!
Enough! If we get back to God and our own Country first, we can be back to the America you remember and that we all want. Turn off the Tv’s, the cellphones, the texting, the Teleprompters!
Let’s give each family who grows their own garden a tax break. Let’s give each family that home schools their children a voucher. Let’s give each family that is married a bigger tax break than all of the broken families that have been encouraged to split up and create babies just for a welfare check. Let’s find a way to encourage all people to go back to Church. Let’s find a way to quit killing babies by the millions (How will we explain that to our Maker?)
Sorry for the rant but we were put on this Earth to love each other and to find our higher selves that is as close to God’s image as we can get. Our government doesn’t help us do that, do they?
“Appeasement of Islam” .
Obama pandering to the muslim vote.
As I have written many times, every nation should have its own War of Roses, no questions asked, and clearly Iraq wants one.
It would seem that the author is a bit confused: why should the US let Iraq set the terms for our help?
The US should let them go it alone, and then let them come to us rather than having to snivel to the people who are in power by our efforts.
So when the US presence is gone, and Iran annexes Iraq, How many hundreds of miles will Iranian missile bases be to Israel?
Another good reason for dismissing the American presence is that it frees the Iraqi government to torture captured insurgents.
Islamist – When Pigs fly! Your “Ummah” has only had a small taste of the whoopass the US Ared Forces can unleash. A concerted attack on the US Hoeland will turn your sand to glass that glows in the dark.
Dr. Shalit
“US Hoeland”?
I be all up in nat. My peeps be gazin’ funny at it. Gnome sayn?
How does Turkey respond to country to country agreements.