Quote:

---

Iraq's leadership has been split on whether it wanted American forces to stay. Some argued the further training and U.S. help was vital, particularly to protect Iraq's airspace and gather security intelligence.
.....
The U.S. said repeatedly this year it would entertain an offer from the Iraqis to have a small force stay behind, and the Iraqis said they would like American military help. But as the year wore on and the number of American troops that Washington was suggesting could stay behind dropped, it became increasingly clear that a U.S. troop presence was not a sure thing.

The issue of legal protection for the Americans was the deal-breaker.

Iraqis are still angry over incidents such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal or Haditha, when U.S. troops killed Iraqi civilians in Anbar province, and want American troops subject to Iraqi law.

American commanders don't want to risk having their forces end up in an Iraqi courtroom if they're forced to defend themselves in a still-hostile environment. http://www.theolympian.com/2011/10/21/1847009/obama-announces-total-ir
aq-troop.html applaud the Iraqis for standing fast on the matter of immunity, that makes sense. But I don't think it's quite as cut-and-dried as you and Wulf think. If it weren't for the immunity issue, as it says some of them would like troops to stay. It's easy to see things in black and white, but in my opinion the world is made up of many shades of grey.

I don't see it as much a matter of being "kicked out" as of them very rightly not being willing to have things like Abu Ghraib happen again, or at least to be able to prosecute those involved if they did. WE should have been responsible for that, but obviously we weren't. Barring that, I think there are many who would like the help we could give them to remain.

I'm NOT in favor of any troops remaining, let me be clear. But I've also long believed that once we DO leave, things will worsen. Our government screwed up, big time, and now the Iraqis will be left to face the vacuum that will be left behind.

Wulf, you're an idiot. The terms of our leaving were set back before Obama even came into office.


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

Quote:

---

Despite their inability to agree on the economy or much else, Republican presidential candidates spoke with one voice in reaction to President Obama’s announcement of a full U.S. withdrawal from Iraq this year.

They were against it.

It was an “astonishing failure” that risked all the gains made “through the blood and sacrifice” of thousands of Americans, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he was “deeply concerned” that Obama had put “political expediency ahead of sound military and security judgment.” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) cited it as another example of the president’s foreign policy weakness, and Jon Huntsman, Obama’s former ambassador to China, called it a “mistake.”

Herman Cain let stand his assessment of last weekend, in which he announced that withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan were “a dumb thing to do.”

They didn’t necessarily all agree on why they were outraged by the news, only that bringing U.S. troops from Iraq is just awful.

Let’s remember exactly what these candidates were saying yesterday: they want at least some U.S. troops to stay in Iraq indefinitely. This disastrous, costly war began nearly nine years ago, but nearly all of the Republican presidential candidates still aren’t in any rush to end the U.S. mission.

As the nation’s attention has largely shifted to domestic concerns, there’s been far less polling on the public’s attitudes on U.S. policy in Iraq. The most recent data, however, shows that most Americans simply do not support the war.

The American mainstream will very likely consider yesterday’s announcement a terrific development. That the Republican presidential field doesn’t care is rather amazing. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_10/gop_candidat
es_decry_iraq_with032982.php if you want to excoriate anyone for not wanting to get out, try the right, not the left, and if you think a President can just say "okay, let's get out" on a whim, to improve his numbers, or for any OTHER reason with no backing, well, what can I say?


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off