By Spencer Ackerman April 14, 2011 | 9:45 am | Categories: Iraq
There are fewer than nine months left in the U.S. military’s long war in Iraq. By the end of the year, the remaining 47,000 U.S. troops will finish packing up their gear and leaving. It’s safe to say their leaders are feeling a certain separation anxiety.
Most notably, Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Iraq last week and loudly warned that its fractious political leadership was running out of time to request the U.S. to stay. If that construction seems odd — and reminiscent of a jilted lover — it’s out of diplomatic necessity and bureaucratic reality. The U.S. and Iraq signed an accord in 2008 mandating a full military withdrawal. To halt that withdrawal requires a cumbersome renegotiation, and the host nation has to initiate it. Clock’s ticking.
Gates has signaled for months that he’d be open to keeping some residual force in Iraq. But now that Iraq has traded places with Afghanistan as a “forgotten war,” he’s been a chorus of one. Now the military command in Baghdad is starting to register angst. An anonymous senior military official assembled reporters on Wednesday to warn that a continued U.S. presence would be “best for Iraq,” especially if the country wants to avoid the political turmoil plaguing its neighbors.
That’s an odd message to send. The U.S. war in Iraq has been an anguished experience. Nearly 4450 U.S. troops have lost their lives there — most recently on Sunday. And the two-year long drawdown has largely been successful, even while Iraq spent months without an elected government in 2010, avoiding the predictions of a return to chaos. Now that getting out looks doable, U.S. officials aren’t arguing that staying in Iraq is in the U.S. interest, they’re arguing it’s a great deal for the Iraqis.
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http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/military-to-iraq-are-you-really-gonna-kick-us-out/#more-44595
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