It's Official: Total Defeat for U.S. in Iraq

[tekisui]

Source: Alternet.org

On November 27 the Iraqi parliament voted by a large majority in favor of a security agreement with the US under which the 150,000 American troops in Iraq will withdraw from cities, towns and villages by June 30, 2009 and from all of Iraq by December 31, 2011. The Iraqi government will take over military responsibility for the Green Zone in Baghdad, the heart of American power in Iraq, in a few weeks time. Private security companies will lose their legal immunity. US military operations and the arrest of Iraqis will only be carried out with Iraqi consent. There will be no US military bases left behind when the last US troops leave in three years time and the US military is banned in the interim from carrying out attacks on other countries from Iraq.

The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), signed after eight months of rancorous negotiations, is categorical and unconditional. America's bid to act as the world's only super-power and to establish quasi-colonial control of Iraq, an attempt which began with the invasion of 2003, has ended in failure. There will be a national referendum on the new agreement next July, but the accord is to be implemented immediately so the poll will be largely irrelevant. Even Iran, which had furiously denounced the first drafts of the SOFA saying that they would establish a permanent US presence in Iraq, now says blithely that it will officially back the new security pact after the referendum. This is a sure sign that Iran, as America's main rival in the Middle East, sees the pact as marking the final end of the US occupation and as a launching pad for military assaults on neighbours such as Iran.

Astonishingly, this momentous agreement has been greeted with little surprise or interest outside Iraq. On the same day that it was finally passed by the Iraqi parliament international attention was wholly focused on the murderous terrorist attack in Mumbai. For some months polls in the US showed that the economic crisis had replaced the Iraqi war as the main issue facing America in the eyes of voters. So many spurious milestones in Iraq have been declared by President Bush over the years that when a real turning point occurs people are naturally sceptical about its significance. The White House was so keen to limit understanding of what it had agreed in Iraq that it did not even to publish a copy of the SOFA in English. Some senior officials in the Pentagon are privately criticizing President Bush for conceding so much to the Iraqis, but the American media are fixated on the incoming Obama administration and no longer pays much attention to the doings of the expiring Bush administration.

more: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/112768/it%27s_official:_total_defeat_for_u.s._in_iraq/

[malaise]

1. When I see the biggest white Rethug elephant,

the US embassy in Iraq, go up in flames, I'll know this is true.

[Selatius]

2. I wonder if the US could find a loophole to remain inside Iraq.

I believe Obama said he'd want there to be a force left behind sort of as advisors to train the Iraqis. If the federal government really wanted to exploit any loophole in the SOFA, couldn't it simply reclassify the entire occupation force as "military advisors" and stay indefinitely?

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Looks like they're standing up, so we can stand down.

[madrchsod]

4. the rulers will have the emerald city walls to hide behind now

i understand why some of the military is upset about that time line.

[tonycinla]

5. Future of Iraq

No one on the face of the earth can accurately predict what the situation will be in Iraq in 2 or 3 years from now.The facts we know are these: 1.Iraq sits on the third largest pool of oil on the earth.2.The Us will need a large supply of oil to function for at least a number of years in the future.3.Iran and Russia sit on very large deposits of oil which are their main source of income and they are not exactly friends to us right now.4.There is a lot of competition for this oil from China and India.5.The Middle East is a volatile area and there is a lot going on there as I write. Bottom Line : The united States cannot afford to let Iraq be taken over or come under the influence of someone who would harm our national security.Unless we want to all heat our homes with wood and do most of our traveling on bicycles we have to have a strong tie with this major oil supply.Obama is well aware of this.

[tekisui]

7. It is not our oil, we are not entitled to it.

It is not a good enough reason to invade, occupy or attack a sovereign nation.

[Xenotime]

9. We had no reason to do what we did. The blood will be on us forever.

[tonycinla]

10. I agree

I was against the invasion,wrote letters to the local paper and called in talk shows to express that.Now that we have done what we did we have other decisions to make,I do not expect Obama to completely leave Iraq .And quite frankly if he said we were pulling out completely , at once,the Iraqi leadership would ask us to stay awhile.The ox is in the ditch (we helped put it there) we now have to help get it out even though it is messy.

[gratuitous]

8. Paying them directly for their resource is clearly out of the question

Besides, it's so much cheaper and economical to send the military over to take it by force.

Although, now that I think about it, I do indeed do most of my traveling by bicycle. Maybe we could develop other means of moving people around? Naaaahhhhh.

[Mari333]

6. bring every last u.s. soldier home, get the hell out of there

and then accept the consequences of the occupation. and the war criminals of the bush admin. should be prosecuted for starting the damnable thing in the first place.