Speaking today in Malaysia, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates raised the prospect of the Obama Administration keeping the Iraq War going past the 2011 deadline negotiated by the Bush Administration in the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).
“Though President Obama made much of the fake ends to the Iraq War in August, some 50,000 US troops remain on the ground, and despite being formally renamed “non-combat” troops they continue to engage in combat missions and receive combat pay.
Of course the real roadblock to this plan of keeping the war going is that Iraq doesn’t actually have a government right now – eight months after the election they still have a caretaker government with no authority to ask the US to continue its occupation. Gates says he expects the new government, assuming one is formed, to wait a few months before asking the US to stay.
So I guess we're not even pretending that the president and congress are relevant anymore huh? Only what the Military and the CIA say counts.
what were they going to do before? Shake hands and go away???
Another "Mission Accomplished" in both Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been so many "missions accomplished", that it is hard to count them. It seems that every such event leaves some "loose ends", and mission just HAS to be continued. Money talks, and everybody else listens.
Keeping the war going? What is it, a car, a machine that we can keep it going? And who is this "U.S." that will keep it going? Certainly not the people of the U.S. Whatever happened to "We the people"? The rich act as though we don't even exist. They need our votes to give themselves the veneer of legitimacy, to keep people from revolting in the streets, but then they proceed as though they own the country and we have nothing to say about it. Time to take back this country and use our tax money for us!
I do not give a rat's behind what the Iraqi government wants. The Iraq war is not worth one more depreciated Bernanke dollar or the life of one more Iraqi or American soldier. Bring all the troops home! Not just from Iraq, but from all around the world. No more foreign wars! No more special relationships!