After the bloody Iraqi debacle--thank you, George W. Bush!--you'd think President Barack Obama would want to get the U.S. out. But no, Washington has been practically begging the Iraqis to let us stay. And now it looks like Baghdad will oblige, so administration officials are "encouraged."
U.S. officials on Wednesday welcomed Iraq’s decision to negotiate with Washington on keeping some U.S. troops in the country into next year, seeing it as a move toward ending the months-long political stalemate that has complicated U.S. plans for a December withdrawal.
Iraq’s top political leaders agreed late Tuesday that the Iraqi military needs to continue training programs with U.S. forces, marking the first step in a process that still could take months to resolve.
“There seems to be broad partnerships and political coalitions emerging that take tough decisions,” said a senior U.S. Embassy official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue frankly. “This is very good, because we don’t want to be the security partner to a dictatorship or to a one-party regime, but rather, we believe we should have acceptance by a broad range of political forces in this country.”
Whenever anyone in Washington is encouraged you can bet that the rest of us are being ripped off. And so it is here. The U.S. should never have invaded Iraq. Iraq now should be left to the Iraqis.
If we are going to leave a garrison, how about staffing it with neocon wannabe warriors. You know, like Dick Cheney, who enjoyed five deferments to stay out of the Vietnam War but now constantly comes up with new wars for today's young people to fight? We could call it the Cheney Brigade!
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