The Pentagon denied reports Saturday that the U.S. abandoned plans to
keep several thousand troops in Iraq after a year-end deadline, saying talks
with Baghdad were still underway.
In a statement to reporters, Pentagon press secretary George Little
denied the news reports: “Suggestions that a final decision has been reached
about our training relationship with the Iraqi government are wrong. Those
discussions are ongoing,” Little said.
The U.S. is still itching to keep about 5,000 additional troops past
the deadline in December. The Maliki government - circumventing Parliament -
initially agreed to the deal, but talks reached an impasse over granting the
additional troops immunity from Iraqi law.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh last week suggested that
Iraq was prepared to bow out of the deal, and instead rely on private
contractors for “training” programs in 2012 and beyond.
A senior Obama administration official in Washington anonymously
confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday that all American troops will
leave Iraq except for about 160 active-duty soldiers attached to the U.S.
Embassy.
But whether a few thousand or a few hundred, the decrease in the
number of troops from the current 41,000 seems unlikely to change Iraq's new
client state status. An effective occupation is not even being negotiated upon.
Antiwar
The Status of Forces Agreement signed by Iraq and the United States
during the Bush administration says all U.S. troops must leave Iraq by Dec. 31,
2011. Huffington Post After more than eight years of war, many weary Iraqis are ready to
see U.S. troops go, and staunchly defend their national sovereignty against an
American force they see as occupiers. NPR The politics of occupation have not changed. For months, American
officials warned the Iraqis that if they did not issue a formal request to stay
it would become logistically impossible to slow the pullout. NY
Times Defense Secretary Leon Panetta supports a plan that would keep 3,000
to 4,000 troops on the ground in Iraq after this year's withdrawal deadline.
Politico Panetta
demanded that the Iraqi government ensure explicit and complete immunity for all
U.S. soldiers that remain in the nation beyond the end of the year.
Antiwar.com Iraqi
leaders, however, insist that “only U.S. trainers could stay, and since they
were to remain on Iraqi military bases and not participate in missions, they
didn’t need the blanket legal immunity troops have enjoyed for years.”
Antiwar.com Many analysts believe that the construction of a $600 million
Vatican-size U.S. embassy in the heart of Baghdad signifies a permanent presence
in Iraq. Fox News
HJ/DB
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