Robert Gates: US Iraq troops 'could stay longer'

[babsbunny]

Robert Gates: US Iraq troops 'could stay longer'

7 April 2011 Last updated at 12:34 ET

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12990912

US troops could if required by Iraq stay in the country beyond the agreed withdrawal date of 31 December, 2011, the US defence secretary has said.

Robert Gates, who is visiting Iraq, says an extended military presence is an option.

"If folks here are going to want us to have a presence, we're going to need to get on with it pretty quickly in terms of our planning," he said.

A large number of the 50,000 US troops in Iraq are due to leave in the summer.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

No one could have seen this coming.

[sakabatou]

2. *facepalm*

Quagmire? What quagmire?

[Octafish]

3. Who runs Bartertown?

Know your BFEE: Money Trumps Peace. Always.

[Rex]

12. Hahahahahaha!!!

Priceless. :thumbsup:

[Octafish]

25. Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

[Rex]

4. Yes that is all we need, ANOTHER South Korea.

:eyes: I swear if anyone ever told the truth about war, it would be over in a day.

[Baclava]

14. No more war.

Just say it....it won't bite, I promise.

[MisterP]

5. I thought we already withdrew (or so I was told...) nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Obama said he would get us out of Iraq.

Then later he added " I meant combat troops"
The 50,000 in Iraq ( who knows if that includes all those expensive "contracters")
are supposed to be "peace keeping" troops.
To "peace keep " the bases we have there.
Which just happen to be all along the oil pipelines and oil fields.

[JoePhilly]

7. What NONSENSE.

He always said that we'd get OUT as carefully as we were careless getting in.

He also said that we'd probably end up with somewhere between 35 and 60k after we pulled the combat troops (which would take about 16 months ... was actually 19 months, the horror).

If you voted for him, and you PAID ATTENTION, you knew this was the plan.

If you voted for him and did not know this, well, that's on you.

[walldude]

8. Ahhh so he promised to be an asshole...

that makes it ok then.

[JoePhilly]

9. You seem to have that positon all locked up.

As a candidate, Obama said what he planned to do. It made sense to me, and I voted for him for that, and many other reasons.

I'm must assume that you did not vote for him because you clearly don't like that he did what he said he'd do in this case.

Must suck to be you, having no better candidate for 2012, or 2016, or 2020.

[Lasher]

21. LOL, what do you know? You think Bush did what Obama told him in Iraq.

Don't get so upset at walldude. Your cognitive dissonance isn't his fault.

[JoePhilly]

24. And apparently, you think Bush was a genius ... part of a small group.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. THIS is what I remember:

In a speech at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Feb. 27, 2009, President Barack Obama pledged to end the combat mission in Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010. And speaking more directly to the issue of permanent bases, he said, "I intend to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011."

The administration's position was reinforced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in a Sept. 4, 2009, interview when he was asked by an Al Jazeera reporter whether the Obama administration would stick to its pledge not to build any permanent military bases in Iraq.

"Absolutely," Gates said. "Unless there is some new agreement or some new negotiation, which would clearly be on Iraqi terms. But we will not have any permanent bases in Iraq. We have no interest in permanent bases in Iraq. And we are now planning on withdrawing all American military forces by the end of 2011."

[Lasher]

20. He said he'd get all of our combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months.

Then, once he'd secured the Democratic nomination, he changed his story.

FactCheck: Promised 16-month exit; now 16-month reduction
Obama stretched out his schedule for withdrawing troops from Iraq. During the (September 26, 2008) debate (with McCain), Obama said we could “reduce” the number of combat troops in 16 months. Obama said, “We should end this war responsibly. We should do it in phases. But in 16 months we should be able to reduce our combat troops, provide some relief to military families and our troops and bolster our efforts in Afghanistan so that we can capture and kill bin Laden and crush al Qaeda.”

But in Oct. 2007, Obama supported removing all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, saying, “I will remove one or two brigades a month, and get all of our combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months. The only troops I will keep in Iraq will perform the limited missions of protecting our diplomats and carrying out targeted strikes on al Qaeda. And I will launch the diplomatic and humanitarian initiatives that are so badly needed. Let there be no doubt: I will end this war.” The quote appears on the campaign’s Web site.

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/barack_obama_war_+_peace.htm

Then once he'd become president, he changed his position again. In his February 27, 2009, speech he was again moving to the right, while trying to make us believe that he was keeping one of his most important primary campaign promises.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=585551#587249

[EFerrari]

15. LOL. Yes, the doubletalk is OUR fault.

Wow, how powerful are we.

[tekisui]

26. We still have 47,000 there. And Obama said ALL troops would be

out by the end of the year. He said that repeatedly

[EFerrari]

16. No, that number doesn't include mercenaries. n/t

[Lasher]

17. The 50,000 does not include contractors.

There are 47,000 'non-combat' US soldiers still in Iraq today.

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/Centers/Saban/Iraq%20Index/index.pdf (Scroll to page 18.)

Obama first said 16 months. Then he said he would take 19 months. Then he reclassified 50,000 troops as 'non-combat' soldiers so that he could leave them there and pretend they're gone. Now they're going to renegotiate the deal Bush made with Iraq, so that we won't withdraw all of these 47,000 by the end of this year. All according to the neoconservative plan to keep US soldiers in Iraq forever.

Yet somehow Obama gets credit for keeping his campaign promise on this one.

[Octafish]

10. And Iraq HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9-11.

Yet, there we are past eight years now.

Anyone else think there's something wrong with this picture?

[Gravel Democrat]

11. US Baghdad embassy will double in size: envoy

BAGHDAD — The US Embassy in Baghdad, already the largest in the world, is expected to double its staff after American forces pull out of the country later this year, Washington's envoy said on Friday.

"We'll be doubling our size if all of our plans go through and if we receive the money from Congress in 2011 and then again in 2012," James Jeffrey, the US ambassador in Iraq, told reporters.

He said the staff would increase "from 8,000 plus personnel that we have now to roughly double that by 2012," adding that US forces would make up only a very small part of that number

..."They said that in 2012, the American presence in Iraq will consist of up to 20,000 civilians at sites that include two embassy branches, two consulates, and three police training centres...."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j8e-qLsSTsWD6_uDG6xD0DyoXVsA?docId=CNG.3bf4105ffa63410f8b0d2165e00d15f5.221



The US Embassy in Iraq: Visible From Space!!!

[WinkyDink]

19. Hey! Finally a Federal jobs program!

[Lasher]

22. Did you know Iraqis have universal health care?

Building schools in Iraq while firing teachers in the USA. If you don't like it you hate the troops. The objective is victory.

[WinkyDink]

18. I believe the word Gates is searching for is "empire."

[FormerDittoHead]

23. They're still training the Iraqi troops! We had NO IDEA how long that training was! n/t