Pretending as usual that months of haranguing the Maliki government into allowing US troops to remain didn’t happen, the White House today insisted that it would “certainly consider” any “requests” by the Iraqi leadership to keep troops in the nation.
White House spokesman Jay Carney insisted that the administration’s position, in the wake of the deadliest day of attacks in over a year, was entirely unchanged and that it was simply a matter of waiting for Iraq to request to see if the US would remain or not.
Of course top Iraqi officials including Prime Minister Maliki have repeatedly ruled out keeping US troops in the nation, but after the administration ignored these comments and kept pressing for an “answer” Maliki has moved toward favoring “some” troops, particularly as violence is on the rise.
Though President Obama declared an end to “combat operations” in Iraq a year ago, combat continues nationwide, with US warplanes launching attacks against targets in the nation without cooperating with the locals, spawning complaints from the parliament and making parliamentary approval for the continued occupation all the more difficult.
