U.S. Expects Long-Term Troop Stay in Iraq

[La_Serpiente]

U.S. Expects Long-Term Troop Stay in Iraq

WASHINGTON - American officials say U.S. forces will be needed in Iraq (news - web sites) long after a sovereign government is restored this summer, but they have yet to work out the terms of a continued presence.

Senior Pentagon (news - web sites) officials said Thursday they were confident that the Iraqis, once given political control, would agree U.S. troops should stay. But some outside the government question whether that would hold true once an elected Iraqi government took over.

Anthony Cordesman, a close observer of the Iraq situation as a strategist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that if political control was turned over on July 1 to an Iraqi body that is not elected, it likely would align itself with U.S. objectives and therefore welcome a continued U.S. military presence. But once elections were held, the U.S. role would be in doubt, he said.

If the new Iraqi government decided it wanted American forces to leave, "We would certainly be obligated to leave, under international law," Cordesman said.

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U.S. Expects Long-Term Troop Stay in Iraq

[Homer12]

1. Bushco want it to

look like he and his neo-con imperialists are leaving before the election, but in reality the USA will be in Iraq and the middle east for an indeterminate amount of time since the oil resources are in the middle east as well as long term military and Geo-political strategy is part of the neo-con plan in the middle east.

Moral: Handing over political control to the Iraqi's is by no means a pull out form the country. I hope Americans see this, the killing will not stop even if this happens.

[leftchick]

2. The Pentagons' credibility is ZILCH!....

"Senior Pentagon officials said Thursday they were confident that the Iraqis, once given political control, would agree U.S. troops should stay.".....ROFLMAO! Do they mean like that "cakewalk"? or how about those WMD? Saddam capture will contain the insurgency? Etc, etc....

The scary thing is they still have not changed their neocon disaster of a game plan. They actually still believe the Iraqis will allow the US to suck up their oil and install bases anywhere the US wants. I forsee a lot more dead soldiers. :(

[tom_paine]

3. Another Bush lie exposed even before the sh*t dries, so to speak

Disgusting.

[teryang]

4. The occupation is ending (sic)

...but the coalition authority is not leaving and Iraq will have the largest American embassy in the world and have a huge foreign army in their country conducting combat operations.

This policy will be tested by fire not American electoral politics. With hundreds of Iraqis being killed every month along with hundreds of coalition casualties there is no government in Iraq.

But if you pretend that none of the foregoing is happening, it sounds like a reasonable policy to those who don't have to pay for it.