obama;s plans for iraq

[niyad]

February 28, 2008
Blackwaterweb4
Jeremy Scahill: Despite Antiwar Rhetoric, Clinton-Obama Plans Would Keep US Mercenaries, Troops in Iraq for Years to Come

Jeremy Scahill reports Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will not “rule out” using private military companies like Blackwater Worldwide in Iraq. Obama also has no plans to sign on to legislation that seeks to ban the use of these forces in US war zones by January 2009. Despite their antiwar rhetoric, both Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton have adopted the congressional Democratic position that would leave open the option of keeping tens of thousands of US troops in Iraq for many years.


. . . . .

* Jeremy Scahill's article, "Obama's Mercenary Position"

JUAN GONZALEZ: “A senior foreign policy adviser to leading Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has told The Nation that if elected Obama will not ‘rule out’ using private security companies like Blackwater Worldwide in Iraq.” That’s the lead sentence from a new article by independent journalist Jeremy Scahill. The adviser to Obama also said that the Illinois Senator does not plan to sign on to legislation that seeks to ban the use of these forces in US war zones by January 2009, when a new president will be sworn in.

AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill joins us now in the firehouse studio, is author of the bestselling book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. His latest article in The Nation is called “Obama’s Mercenary Position.” It appears in this issue of The Nation.

Welcome to Democracy Now! So, what did you find out, Jeremy?

JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I started looking at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s Iraq plans, and one of the things that I discovered is that both of them intend to keep the Green Zone intact. Both of them intend to keep the current US embassy project, which is slated to be the largest embassy in the history of the world. I mean, I think it’s 500 CIA operatives alone, a thousand personnel. And they’re also going to keep open the Baghdad airport indefinitely. And what that means is that even though the rhetoric of withdrawal is everywhere in the Democratic campaign, we’re talking about a pretty substantial level of US forces and personnel remaining in Iraq indefinitely.

In the case of Barack Obama, I wanted to focus in on what his position is on private military contractors, particularly armed ones like those that work for Blackwater. And the reason I focus on Obama instead of Hillary on this is because Barack Obama has actually been at the forefront of addressing the mercenary issue in the Congress. In February of 2007—this was way before the Nisour Square massacre, where Blackwater forces killed seventeen Iraqis and wounded twenty others—in February of 2007, Barack Obama sponsored legislation in the Senate that sought to expand US law so that—

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/28/jeremy_scahill_despite_anti_war_rhetoric

[whistle]

1. Are we Democrats setting ourselves up for an Othello as the next president

http://www.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/handouts/sample/Othellopaper.html

[Muttocracy]

2. from further down in the article:

"But as you know, Juan, this is a bipartisan industry. I mean, Bill Clinton really gave rise to this phenomenon of the military contractors. We know that Dick Cheney was running Halliburton in the ’90s. Who was giving Dick Cheney all of those contracts? Well, it was Bill Clinton. And the Democrats have long been good for the war contracting industry. There’s a reason why Hillary Clinton is the number one recipient of campaign contributions from the defense industry. Number two is John McCain. Obama is number four. Chris Dodd is ahead of him. It’s very interesting. It’s a bipartisan phenomenon."

[leftofcool]

3. And you really think Obama will be pulling out troops in 60 days

Or that Clinton will begin a phased withdrawal?

[BenDavid]

4. Obama enjoys telling everyone about his opposition to the

war in Iraq and he always points to the speech he gave in 2002. Well, I have a few questions and maybe obama folks could answer them for all of us:

Where was Obama's big anti-war speech in 2003?
Where was Obama's big anti-war speech in 2004, at Kerry's convention?
Where was Obama's big anti-war speech in 2005?
Where was Obama's big anti-war speech in 2006?
Where was Obama's anti-war filibuster in 2007? Was stopping the war worth standing up, Barack?
Perhaps maybe deep down you obama folks are asking, "If he's got more than a 2002 speech - where is it?"

[billbuckhead]

5. This is the biggest untold story about this election

The lie about leaving Iraq.

[niyad]

6. and it's fascinating that there is no coverage of this

[oviedodem]

7. For the short sighted, If any of you have been listening, BOTH want

major miliatary forces removed in short order. NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would not have a quick strike force in the region due to Iraq's instability. Furthermore, even during the Clinton years, there were strike forces in the gulf regions; we still had patrolled "no fly" zones during his administrations.

There is an embassy in Iraq and you have to have a stronger than normal force to protect that interest. What McCain wants is a SIGNIFICANT military force in Iraq doing military operations.

This is as simple as it gets.

IF you completely pull out you run the risk of turning Iraq into a breeding ground for extremism. Since Bush has put us in this position, we have to find a happy medium here.

[niyad]

8. we know the situation is difficult--the point was that some things are not

being covered as thoroughly as they should.