Small U.S. Force to Stay in Iraq After 2011 Deadline

[tekisui]

Source: Xinhua

BAGHDAD, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A small U.S. force will stay in Iraq after the deadline of the U.S. troops' withdrawal from the country by the end of 2011, an Iraqi official newspaper said on Thursday.

"There is initial agreement (between Baghdad and Washington) to leave a small U.S. force in Iraq to help training Iraqi forces on new weapons that Iraq will buy," the state-run newspaper of al- Sabah quoted a U.S. source as saying without giving his name.

The residual U.S. force will be liaised with the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and will not be part of the yet-to-be decided extension of U.S. troops' presence in Iraq or the complete troops' pullout scheduled by the end of 2011, the paper said.

The source remarks came as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani held talks with U.S. ambassador to Baghdad James F. Jeffrey tackling means to develop bilateral relations during the upcoming stage, the paper added.

more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-06/23/c_13946403.htm

[Javaman]

1. you mean less than the 50K "non-combat" forces that there is there now?

which still have this uncanny ability to get killed for soldiers in "non-combat" operations.

[Atman]

2. It will take several batallions just to guard our Mega-Embassy.

Remember (does anyone?) that while the fake war raged, we were building the largest embassy on the planet Earth? A mega-embassy with 6000 apartments. More like a city than an embassy. We're not going to walk away from it. It has to be defended. We'll say we're "withdrawing," but many troops will just be shuffled to our "sovereign territory" behind the compound walls. It's all a fucking sham.

.

[tekisui]

3. There is that huge one that is the size of a city, and there

are some 14-17 more permanent 'embassies' across Iraq. 15,000+ 'embassy workers' will stay, including 5,100 mercenaries. None of that includes the military force that may stay.

The State Dept. is going to serving a quasi-military role in Iraq for years to come, in addition to the Defense Dept. troops that may stay.

[mdmc]

4. exactly