The U.S. is leaving Iraq at the end of the year

Chris

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May 30, 2008
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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 completely by January will effectively end more than eight years of U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.

U.S. to stick to Iraq troop withdrawal deadline
 
Well, we all know what happened to Afghanistan after the Soviets left and we abandonded our interest there. So another bonheaded move by Obama. This allows Iran to turn Iraq into its next province. We'll be back in 10 years.
 
I'm convinced that Sunni-Shiite civil war will escalate into the mother of all bloodbaths - and Iran will be heavily involved.
 
Gonna bug-out an' leave Iraq to the Iraqis...
:eusa_eh:
AP: U.S. drops keeping troops in Iraq
15 Oct.`11 – The U.S. is abandoning plans to keep U.S. 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 U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.
The decision ends months of hand-wringing by U.S. officials over whether to stick to a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008 or 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. In recent months, Washington has been discussing with Iraqi leaders the possibility of several thousand American troops remaining to continue training Iraqi security forces. A Pentagon spokesman said Saturday that no final decision has been reached about the U.S. training relationship with the Iraqi government.

But a senior Obama administration official in Washington confirmed Saturday that all American troops will leave Iraq except for about 160 active-duty soldiers attached to the U.S. Embassy. A senior U.S. military official confirmed the departure and said the withdrawal could allow future but limited U.S. 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 U.S. 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 American forces to stay. Some argued the further training and U.S. help was vital, particularly to protect Iraq's airspace and gather security intelligence. But others have deeply opposed any American troop presence, including Shiite militiamen who have threatened attacks on any American forces who remain.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has told U.S. military officials that he does not have the votes in parliament to provide immunity to the American trainers, the U.S. military official said. A western diplomatic official in Iraq said al-Maliki told international diplomats he will not bring the immunity issue to parliament because lawmakers will not approve it. A White House spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said discussions with Iraq about the security relationship between the two countries next year were ongoing. Pentagon press secretary George Little said the U.S. remains "committed to keeping our agreement with the Iraqi government to remove all of our troops by the end of this year."

MORE
 
Hillary shakin' her finger at Ahmadinejad...
:eusa_eh:
US warns Iran on interference in Iraq after pullout
Mon, Oct 24, 2011 - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday implicitly warned Iran not to interfere in Iraq after the decision to pull all US troops out of the war-wracked state by the end of the year.
Clinton, on a visit to Tajikistan, echoed US President Barack Obama’s comments that the US would continue to work with Iraq despite a complete military withdrawal, but urged neighboring states to be similarly constructive.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

“To countries in the region, especially Iraq’s neighbors, we want to emphasize that America will stand with our allies and friends, including Iraq, in defense of our common security and interests,” she said. The US would continue to have a presence in the region, which “should be free from outside interference to continue on a pathway to democracy,” Clinton added, alluding to US arch-foe Iran.

UNDER FIRE

Washington has frequently accused Shiite militant groups in Iran of committing attacks in Iraq and US officials routinely criticize Tehran for interfering in the affairs of Baghdad’s Shiite-led government. Obama’s order for all US soldiers to leave Iraq by Dec. 31 will end a divisive and bloody war that cost the lives of more than 4,400 US troops, tens of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of billions of US dollars.

US warns Iran on interference in Iraq after pullout - Taipei Times
 
Stupid move by Obama on a strategic level. I hope Iran invades during the election season for it will show it was a stupid foreign policy move by the usurper. It will just be one more crisis that will insure a republican or independent canddates victory against him.
 
2nd Iran-Iraq war comin'?...
:eusa_eh:
73% of Iraqis: Iran Is Likely to Act Aggressively When U.S. Troops Leave
October 24, 2011 - About 73 percent of Iraqis said they believe it is likely Iran will act aggressively toward their country after U.S. troops leave in December.
Fifty-one percent said they believe the security situation within Iraq will get worse when the U.S. forces leave. These are the results of a survey conducted by YouGov-Cambridge, a partnership between the British polling group YouGov and Cambridge University. The survey interviewed 505 Iraqis from July 12-27. The survey also found that 80 percent of Iraqis—403 of the 505 surveyed—said they believe it is likely that neighboring countries will act aggressively toward Iraq after U.S. forces leave the country. Of the 403 who said that thought this was likely, 91 percent said they thought it was likely that Iran would act aggressively toward Iran. That means about 73 percent of the overall sample said they believed it was likely Iran would act aggressively toward Iraq after the U.S. withdraws.

Only 22 percent of Iraqis said they were confident that Iraq’s own forces could protect the country’s borders from neighboring countries after the U.S. withdraws, while 75 percent said they were not confident Iraqi forces could do that. Similarly, only 31 percent of Iraqis said they were confident Iraqi forces could protect the Iraqi population from terrorist attacks, while 67 percent said they were not confident. The survey asked the Iraqi respondents this question: “If the security situation does not improve or gets worse, would you personally support Iraqi politicians asking the U.S. government to keep the troops in Iraq?”

Forty percent said they would support Iraqi politicians asking the U.S. to keep troops in Iraq if the situation did not improve and 26 percent said they would support Iraqi politicians asking the U.S. to keep troops in Iraq but only if the security situation got worse. Only 28 percent said they would not support Iraqi politicians asking the U.S. to keep troops in the country under either circumstance. When asked what they thought would be the impact on Iraq’s governing coalition if Iraqi politicians asked the U.S. to keep troops in the country after the agreed-upon December departure date, 31 percent said they believed the coalition government would collapse, while 56 percent said it would have no impact on the coalition.

Source
 
Bringing troops home for Christmas can't be all bad. At least we can all hear John Lennon Happy Xmas (War is Over) song bellowing out of all the OWS locations.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg"]John Lennon Happy Xmas (War is Over)[/ame]
 
Amen! Hallelujah! Lets get the Hell out of there. Let them have their Civil War. It's what they've wanted for many years anyway. They wanted that long before we got there. Now it's time for them to sort things out once and for all. And we should not be in the middle of that. Also,i'm not too worried about Iran over there. They have their own big problems. If they want to get bogged down in an Iraqi Civil War quagmire,i say let them go for it. It's their funeral. But we certainly don't need to be there. Now i just hope this is for real. I'm still skeptical of a complete withdrawal. I tend to think we will always have bases there. But i'm willing to wait and see. I'll stay tuned.
 
I really do hope Iran does get in the middle of the Iraqi Civil War. A nice long protracted quagmire for them will be good for us. Their Mullahs are cracking too so they already have a very big mess at home. And some of the Arab Sunni nations in the region will support fellow Sunnis in Iraq against the Iranian Shias. So Iran is screwed no matter which way you slice it. I know the majority thinks otherwise,but i'm going with my gut on this. The Iraqi Civil War will not be good for Iran.
 
There seems to be no shortage of ignorant, short-sighted fools around here.
 
Well, we all know what happened to Afghanistan after the Soviets left and we abandonded our interest there. So another bonheaded move by Obama. This allows Iran to turn Iraq into its next province. We'll be back in 10 years.

A beloved friend to Iran and Hezbollah already runs the country and has run it for years, including when your hero was in office.

So having a pro-Iran administration in Iraq is already the case, and was done so with our blessing.



This kind of stuff is predictable with how our foreign policy is run by the 2 status quo parties, and people still act surprised when every single one of their decisions ends up being disastrous.
 
Iran's involvement in an Iraqi Civil War will be a massive blunder on the Mullahs' part. It will only quicken their demise but many innocent Iraqis and Iranians will be slaughtered in the process. Many many will suffer. Iran will be devasted but the Mullahs will probably be gone forever. It's gonna be a real horror show but lets hope some good comes out of it. Stay tuned.
 
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