Some 5,000 protesters took to the streets of the Northern Iraqi city of Mosul today calling on the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to resist US calls to extend the US military presence in the country beyond December.
The protesters included a number of top local leaders, who said they also wanted the government to follow through on promised reforms and released a number of detainees. The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) requires all US troops to exit the country by December 31, 2011.
But US officials have been pushing for that to be extended, saying that they can’t possibly leave the country by that date. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has called for keeping the troops there for years past 2012.
Maliki has repeatedly ruled out allowing the US troops to stay, insisting that the Iraqi soldiers are ready to replace them now. With top cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threating an open revolt if the troops stay, many fear a continued US presence would be far more of a harm than any benefit they might provide in training.
"With top cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threating an open revolt if the troops stay, many fear a continued US presence would be far more of a harm than any benefit they might provide in training."
There is no benefit for Iraqis, training or otherwise, in a continued US presence. The only ones who stand to benefit are the military industrial complex and big oil, which makes US withdrawal of troops, ever, extremely unlikely.
And why can't the military leave by December? Is there anything stopping air transports from picking up all the combat brigades and dropping them off back home? Is there anything preventing civilian contractors from packing up whatever they want to save to take home? Id there anything to prevent the RO/RO transports from pulling into port and loading all the tracked and wheeled vehicles they can carry?
You can bet your bottom dollar that if a war broke out in, say, Australia and the US needed to intervene, the military would FIND a way to get all the troops and equipment it needed there in a hurry. If someone tells you they've landed a shipload of tanks in a day, but it will be six months before they can possibly be reloaded, they've got an agenda to fill or they're lying or both.
The only thing preventing US forces from leaving Iraq on time AS WE AGREED TO is the US itself. When December comes and goes and we're not out of Iraq, the blood of US soldiers will be on the President's hands when the Iraqis have a complete return to anti-US insurgency.