It is becoming almost certain that the U.S. succeed in forcing Iraq to “invite” thousands of American troops to stay indefinitely in the latest imperial outpost of the United States in the Arab world. [New York Times, May 12]
To recap: the Bush administration signed a pact with the Iraqi government in the interlude between administrations, and President Obama concurred. Then in early 2009 Obama added an unexpected promise to withdraw all American troops by December 2011, instead of leaving a residual force as he had proposed during his campaign.
The Pentagon relentlessly pressured the Iraqis to amend the agreement allowing for an American base and troops.
The Pentagon is winning. If this was just another base among 800 scattered around the world, it might be accepted with a sigh of resignation. But this places American forces in the middle of sectarian tensions inside Iraq, near the oil fields if trouble should erupt, and serving as a counter-point to heavily-armed Iran. [Not to mention propping up an authoritarian sectarian government with a long record of human rights abuses.]
In the political balance of forces, however, there are few if any voices in Congress or the peace movement speaking out, much less organizing against the bastion-to-be. Among the influentials, only Obama’s occasional advisers at the Center for American Progress are on record favoring a complete pullout.
Categories: Americas, Asia, Iraq, Middle East, United States
There are many politicians in Iraq – and members of Parliament – who are calling for an urgent, total withdrawel of the US forces, however, unfortunately the above prediction might win out in the end.