Iraq leader: U.S. troops needed for 2 more years

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC/AP

Iraq’s Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, said Friday that his country may need U.S. troops for one or two more years. The statement came after lawmakers in Baghdad backed a drawdown in the number of foreign troops in Iraq.

Talabani told students at Cambridge University that all of Iraq was safer because of Saddam Hussein’s removal and that many people were living normal lives. “I think that in one or two years we will be able to recruit our forces, to prepare our forces and say goodbye to our friends,” he said.

On Thursday, a majority of Iraqi lawmakers endorsed a draft bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number already in the country.

The legislation was being discussed even as U.S. lawmakers were locked in a dispute with the White House over their call to start reducing the size of the U.S. force in the coming months.




Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18602895/

[Eugene]

1. Another "one to two years," just like they said 6 months ago

and 6 months before that...

It's always another 18 months.

[daleo]

11. Two more years of futility

Or four "Friedman Units".

[durablend]

2. We're never leaving... n/t

[Squatch]

3. This dude's on crack.

"all of Iraq was safer"

[acmavm]

9. My first thought was what drug is this guy on.

[conspirator]

4. "Iraq puppet leader tells whatever he is told to say" nt

[saigon68]

8. He's tripping on his strings

[Handsome Pete]

5. Wait!!!

Does he want fries with that?

[Tempest]

6. Is that the new Friedman Unit?

:puke:

[Rose Siding]

7. Uh, when's the next "election" because didn't the parliament support timetables by like 90%?

[BootinUp]

10. I think he rolled the dice and got a two. n/t

[ohio2007]

12. What's Talabani doing at Cambridge University

besides talking to students

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said he had backed the draft only on the condition that the withdrawal timetable be linked to a schedule for training and equipping Iraq's security forces.

"But the sponsors of the legislation did not include our observations in the draft. This is deception," he said.

Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which launched two uprisings against U.S. troops in 2004, has been blamed in much of the recent sectarian violence against Sunnis and has been one of the main targets of a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown.

Last month, the cleric ordered his six Cabinet ministers to leave the government after the Shiite prime minister refused to put a timetable for foreign troops withdrawal.

[LynnTheDem]

13. Talabani; the man who kissed Saddam Hussein.

Talabani; the man who asked Saddam's help in putting down his Kurd warlord rival.

Talabani; the man responsible for more Kurd deaths than Iran, Turkey & Hussein combined.

Talabani; the man who would dare say "Iraq was safer because of Saddam Hussein’s removal and that many people were living normal lives".

Talabani; even the Kurds don't believe his bullshit.

But the rightwingnut bushbots will, of course.