In Shadow of Death, Iraq and U.S. Tiptoe Around a Deadline

[tekisui]

Source: New York Times

BAGHDAD — The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is privately telling American officials that it wants their army to stay here after this year.

The Americans are privately telling their Iraqi counterparts that they want to stay. But under what conditions, and at what price to the Americans who stay behind?

American combat deaths are on the rise here, an ominous harbinger of what lies ahead if an agreement is reached to keep troops here after the withdrawal deadline set for the end of the year. For the same Iraqi government that wants the Americans to stay is also tacitly condoning attacks by Shiite militias on American troops, by failing to respond as aggressively to their attacks as it does to those of Sunni insurgent groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq.

(snip)

To make this palatable to the citizenry in Iraq and the United States, the public relations game is to draft language that is politically acceptable yet obscures the reality that American soldiers will continue to face an enemy, will need to defend themselves and will almost certainly continue to die.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/world/middleeast/15iraq.html

[PoliticAverse]

1. I''m shocked, SHOCKED... n/t