Iraqi Leaders want US to pull out
Posted by Moonage on 22 Nov 2005 | Tagged as: International Issues
The communique finalized by Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders Monday condemned terrorism but was a clear acknowledgment of the Sunni position that insurgents should not be labeled as terrorists if their operations do not target innocent civilians or institutions designed to provide for the welfare of Iraqi citizens.
The leaders agreed on "calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces … control the borders and the security situation" and end terror attacks.
The preparatory reconciliation conference, held under the auspices of the Arab League, was attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers as well as leading Sunni politicians.
Sunni leaders have been pressing the Shiite-majority government to agree to a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops. The statement recognized that goal, but did not lay down a specific time reflecting instead the government’s stance that Iraqi security forces must be built up first.
On Monday, Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr suggested U.S.-led forces should be able to leave Iraq by the end of next year, saying the one-year extension of the mandate for the multinational force in Iraq by the U.N. Security Council this month could be the last.
"By the middle of next year we will be 75 percent done in building our forces and by the end of next year it will be fully ready," he told the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera.
You know what, I’m game to let them give it a try. I really am. However, our troops would be just on the other side of their border just in case. Maybe hanging out in Iran or Syria while the Iraqis figure out of they can maintain their own society.
1 Comment »
on 22 Nov 2005 at 7:52 pm 1.Bryan Kerwick
said …
It never seems to occur to anyone that training up the troops and police is not the problem the security forces are facing. The problem is they have no leadership. It takes the US to train combat ready troops approximately 10 months. It takes 15 years to train officers and NCO’s. Therein lies the problem.
We could probably withdraw most of the troops by the end of next year but that still doesn’t address the void in leadership. We will have a presence in Iraq for a long, long time until the leadership in country is up to snuff.
A small contingent of officer training and imbedded advisors will be required to get things back to normal as well as constant joint training missions with friendly nations like the US, UK, Poland, Bulgaria and to a lesser extent Nato for the longterm forseeable future.
I suspect that once cooler heads prevail and even the staunchest cut and run crowd understand this simple fact of life, the problems, real and perceived will work themselves out so long as partisan politics keeps at a minimum.
Just another thought that really isn’t related but has its roots based in the pre-war voting on the Iraqi invasion at the UN. Bulgaria is seeking a long term committment from the US for at least 2 major permananent bases on their soil which I suspect will be approved at the expense of the aging bases currently in Germany. What comes around goes around. The US bases in Germany are a major factor in Germany’s national economy and loosing their bases will be a major devestation to their already out of control unemployment problem. It also forces Germany to rely on their own defens at their expense without relying on NATO. Guess they reap what they sow and have no one to blame but themselves. We need to be where we are wanted and not worry about what impact this will have on Germany’s economy, let alone their defense abilities. It serves them right.
There is also some rumors of a major cutback in US participation in all UN peacekeeping plans which will now fall squarely on France’s shoulders to pick up the slack. I can hardly wait for those cheese eating surrender monkeys to either put up or shut up.
As far as Japan is concerned, they have now been bitching for quite some time now about the Okinawa bases yet still expect the US to somehow protect the Pacific Rim from the rogue nation of North Korea. Turning the Okinawa bases over to Japan to man and pay their own way in defending themselves from this threat will soon become their problem as it should be. Japan to their credit has been systematically beefing up their capabilities and will probably do a fine job in the transition. I just wonder how much bitching will come from them when they also have to pick up the check to pay for their own national defense interests in a very violatile and dangerous area of the world. Be careful for what you wish for because you will certainly always get what you thought you wanted. Trillions of Yen will be required to maintain their own defense but it is clearly time for us to leave and let them take care of their own problems because they certainly can afford to do so now. I wish them the best and am confident they will do a fine job but the hit on their economy will be an unexpected consequence of their decesion. It is high time other nations pick up the bill for ther own needs so we can more eficiently reorganize our own military budget at great savings to the American taxpayers without sacraficing our national interests in these areas.
I suspect the Iranian problem will be greatly reduced in a short period of time as well. Afghanistan and Iraq are quickly becoming more self reliant every day and this has a very clear domino effect in Iran. Iranian leadership of the hardliners is aging rapidly in the youngest population in the world. Most of the younger Iranians want out of the 7th century mentality and much prefer the western model as a vast improvement in living conditions. While Iran is the second largest OPEC member, their infrastructure and basic governmental services are woefully lacking. This has not been lost on the vast majority of the younger majority of this country and will force changes as their neighbors east and west of them are making monumental strides at becoming a more secular democracy with all the benefits of capitolistic ideals and benefits. It is just a matter of time before the aging leadership in Iran are replaced by the younger crowd that have an entirely different perspective on where they want their country to be in the very near future. Patience will only help our interests as the Iranian population sees their neighbors have a vastly different standard of living that can be theirs in the very near future once the hardliners die of old age which is coming faster than most can understand. The difference in the age gap between the current leadership and the general population is staggering and will only improve in time.
The North Korean menace will implode on itself as they can not feed their population due primarily to the massive siphoning of their limited resources to the military. Kin Jong Il will not live much longer and the desire to eat will overwhelm the the wishes to become a major player in the nuclear age. Those who disagree need only look at the Soviet unions demise for precisely the same reasons. The easiest way for the US to solve this problem is to force North Korea to completely bankrupt further an already decimated economy by giving Japan and South Korea the ultimate equalizer of turning over the bases and nuclear capabilities to those nations. A point which will not be lost on the population of North Korea which is starving at an alarming rate. They will be required to total self destruction or negotiate an elimination to the weapons systems in the area held by Japan and South Korea and not having the US to blame as the problem once we relinquish the defense of the Pacific rim nations to themselves and we leave where we are really not wanted in the first place. China having 3 nuclear capable nations in their backyard will most certainly force them to get rid of all this destructive power in a sensible manner. It is high time we let self determination rest solely in the people who have a bigger chip in the game.
Capitolistic democracies worldwide are rapidly widening the gap of living standards from those nations who prefer the status quo of turning back the clock but the age population in those countries want what the rest of us have and will get there in time.
The domino effect will take its toll on those regimes and the world will be much better for it thanks primarily to the Anglophone nations who are based in Brittish common law constitutions that work extremely well and the rest are failing at an alarming rate.
President Bush has done an extremely good job at forcing this issue which he has been demonized by the Liberal media for but the people in the problem countries are embracing the American way of life at an alarming rate to the complete displeasure of the ruling parties of those countries. Thankfully those countries have an aging leadership and a total disconnect with the next generation. The wars have eliminated most of the middle age population and change is in the air despite the Liberal agenda supported by the media’s best effort to paint an entirely different picture. Time will prove that Bush policies are entirely responsible for transforming the world to a better safer place although at an extremely high price. The death toll of US troops in these Middle-East campaigns has now risen to the 2,100 mark which to some may be appalling but is still only about 70% of the fatalities we suffered by civilians on 9/11/01. It is high time we recognize the facts and not the politically motivated Liberal press accounts of what is really going on in this world and also understand what small a price it has been to pay for transforming this world to a safer place in which to live.
Now if we could only force the issue in Israel to advance the roadmap to turning over to the Palestinians what is rightfully theirs. We will have plenty of resources to handle the unauthorized armed militias that are the major stumbling block to solving this problem. If that is acomplished, the argument from the Arab world will be no more and other issues will be forced to be dealt with like free elections and human rights abuses.
The world is becoming a better place in spite of the Liberal agenda to spin this effort into a desaster on the scale of Vietnam.
Stay the course is precisely what we need to do.