When Iraq War Ends, How Many Troops Will Stay?

[tekisui]

Source: NPR

U.S. military leaders are debating how many troops will stay in Iraq when the war winds down by year's end. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says some troops will stay for years past the deadline, but Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warns that if U.S. troops remain past 2011, his militias will return to violence.

Listen at link: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/30/136796432/when-iraq-war-ends-how-many-troops-will-stay

[tekisui]

1. This is a good report.

Tim Arango, of the New York Times tells that US special forces carry out daily raids and operations in Iraq.

For all the naysayers and those who refuse to hear, those are combat operations. And there are contingencies to keep troops in Iraq, up to 20,000 past 2011.

[pampango]

2. Hopefully more like the Philippines (600) after they told us to close our bases there in 1991, than

Germany (71,000), Japan (47,000), and South Korea (37,500) - those figures are for 2004 (couldn't find more recent numbers quickly).

http://www.slate.com/id/2105295/

As Juan Cole points out: "The Iraqi people and the parliament want the US out of Iraq, and the US public wants out, and that withdrawal should proceed as outlined in the SOFA (i.e. US out by the end of the year). The Iraqi military is such that Baghdad will likely muddle through without the Pentagon. Moreover, trying to keep US troops in a country where they are widely disliked can only cause a lot of trouble."

http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/time-to-begin-leaving-afghanistan.html

""The Iraqi people and the parliament want the US out of Iraq..." which makes makes it similar to the Philippines' attitude twenty years ago rather than Germany, Japan or South Korea where we haven't been asked to leave, indeed quite the opposite.

At any rate, it is time to withdraw our troops from Germany and Japan. They serve no useful military purpose any more. South Korea may have to be negotiated, but South Koreans are now as wealthy as Europeans and can afford their own defense, perhaps with the promise of military support if they ever need it.

With the changes happening in the Middle East there is no reason for us to maintain large numbers of troops in Iraq (even if they wanted us to which they don't).

[Citizen Worker]

3. 25-30,000 just to garrison the mammoth embassy compound.

[readmoreoften]

4. +1

[Obamanaut]

5. Self delete. pampango has a great response, #2 above, better than mine was. nt

[Javaman]

6. We are never leaving.

the embassy in Iraq is basically the headquarters of the Western U.S. Empire.

Think of it as a Constantinople (which is now Istanbul)