Bush Urged Not to Lock Successor into Iraq
SAN FRANCISCO - An arms control group in Washington, DC has begun a petition drive urging Congress to stop President Bush from signing an agreement they say could bind his successor to continue the occupation of Iraq for another five years.
“When the Bush administration launched its attack on Iraq in 2003, it assured the American public that the war would be quick, cheap, and easy,” reads the petition from the Council for a Livable World. “Five years into this disastrous war, both Bush and Iraqi officials are talking about occupying Iraq for another decade — or even longer.
“Withdrawing our military from Iraq, while helping rebuild Iraq and assisting refugees, is the just and honorable solution to an unjust war,” it continues. “We reject the idea of committing the United States to a long-term occupation in Iraq, and ask our elected officials to quickly and safely bring our American troops home.”
So far, more than 3,200 people have signed the petition, which was originally sparked by a deal Bush reached with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that commits the United States to a “long term” relationship with Iraq and lays the groundwork for binding his successor to a permanent relationship with Iraq.
But that agreement isn’t the only target of the petition. The group is also concerned about the positions of most of the Republican candidates for president — chief among them Arizona Senator John McCain.
Earlier this month, McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war and ardent supporter of Bush’s 2007 “surge” in Iraq, was asked at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire whether he supported keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for 50 years.
“Make it 100,” McCain responded. “We’ve been in Japan for 60 years, we’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. I hope it would be fine with you if we retain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaeda is training, recruiting, and motivating people.”
“The war has been going on since 2003 but in McCain’s eyes we’ve only recently gotten our act together and started to wage this war in the right way,” notes Travis Sharp of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a Washington DC-based nonprofit group that conducts research about foreign affairs and militarism.
“So if anyone thinks [McCain] is going to be enthusiastic about reducing troop levels or winding down operations in the near future if he’s elected, those people have another thing coming,” Sharp told OneWorld.
McCain isn’t the only candidate to support the invasion of Iraq and Bush’s 2007 surge — every Republican but Texas Congressman Ron Paul has espoused those positions. But McCain has been the most adamant on those issues, and has made continuing the war a cornerstone of his campaign.
Over the weekend, he attacked his rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, for telling ABC’s Good Morning America program he would support “a series of timetables and milestones” that wouldn’t be “for public pronouncement.”
“You don’t want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you’re going to be gone,” Romney said. “You want to have a series of things you want to see accomplished in terms of the strength of the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police, and the leadership of the Iraqi government.”
McCain’s response: “One of my opponents wanted to set a date for withdrawal that would have meant disaster. If we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher.”
Writing in the conservative National Review, David Freddoso said “Romney has always been cautious about the Iraq war — many hawks would say it is to a fault. He has said he supported the war at the time, knowing what he knew in 2003. He says he supports it now because we cannot abandon the mission we began. But, unlike most of his Republican rivals, Romney has never explicitly embraced the idea that it was the right thing to do in retrospect, knowing what we know now — that is, that he would do it again if given the choice.”
“Romney’s style is very methodical and very data driven,” said Solon Simmons of George Mason’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. “His strength is in the economy. He seems a little tired when he talks about defense policy — not necessarily a flip flopper but a little bit on that side.”
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s Iraq policy has also been somewhat confusing. In presidential debates, he has spoken out strongly in favor of the war and the surge but in a December article in Foreign Affairs he accused the Bush administration of an “arrogant bunker mentality” that “has been counterproductive at home and abroad.”
“The United States, as the world’s only superpower, is less vulnerable to military defeat,” he wrote. “But it is more vulnerable to the animosity of other countries. Much like a top high school student, if it is modest about its abilities and achievements, if it is generous in helping others, it is loved. But if it attempts to dominate others, it is despised.”
“Huckabee is sort of unformed on the foreign policy front,” says Justin Raimondo, the editorial director of Antiwar.com. “I think he is giving force to the idea that the Bush administration is arrogant, but on the other hand he will say we have to go after the Iranians, but he’s very vague about it.”
As an antiwar conservative, Raimondo supports Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who voted against the Iraq war. Paul argues that the U.S. troop presence in Iraq is itself feeding the insurgency.
“The al-Qaeda wasn’t there, but they’re there now,” he said in last week’s MSNBC debate. “There were no weapons of mass destruction and [Iraq] had nothing to do with 9/11.”
“It’s a sad story because we started that war. We should never be a country that starts war needlessly,” Paul said.
© 2008 One World
We need to get the president to agree to a removal based on the value of dollar. When the dollar drops to half its current value in euros, our credit rating in the world will be so bad that nobody will buy our notes to continue the war. We will have spent ourselves into peace.
The USA is a predatory sole superpower, a description of the USA that her citizens wear as a badge of valour; but to us in the third world we spit on the USA as a bully and the sole superpower that creates a world of endless wars. There is nothing very honourable about the sole superpower bombing into the stone gae of helpless little native third world nations like Iraq or Afghanistan nad retain complete control over their government by putting in place their own very puppet like Al Maliki and Khasai.
There is no honour in killing 800,000 Iraqis for the purpose of stealing Iraqi oil either.
Why are we in Japan? Why are we in South Korea? Didnt Germany kick us out? Didn’t Sauda Arabia kick us out? Who in the world can justify us being in Japan? How would we like it if we were occupied? If we are still in Japan, is it the American taxpayer supporting this, or the Japanese? Will someone please explain this?
A treaty requires SENATE approval to be legal.
U.S. trooops are still in Japan after 60+ years, still in S Korea after 50+ years, not to mention the over 700 military bases scattered throughout the world.
There were NO al-Qaida in Iraq before the criminals had it attacked five years ago, even though Bush LIED and said they were there. Bush’s speech was boring as hell, and so was the so-called oppositional Democratic speech afterward, by the governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius. It’s always the same old BS hashed and rehashed. Politicians in this country give the most boring speeches. The only ones who aren’t boring are the ones who actually tell the truth, like Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul. They at least say something new in their speeches.
It’s widely known and reported that the Bush administration LIED about reasons to attack Iraq. NOW WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR LIES?? And if not, WHY?? The lying b@stards and their accomplices in Congress and in the media cover their lies with MORE LIES.
I think we end this war by telling the truth about our veterans and working to end enlistments. We can and should be doing this on a local and state level. Forget the Fed’s, Pelosi and Reid would send their mothers into Iraq before supporting impeachment. Pelosi’s dream of a female pres. and a female house majority leader seems to be drying up with the advancement of Obama. Think of her as a political prune.
This is a lot of hype about nothing. Bush can’t “bind” his successor in office to any agreement with Iraq. Whatever he agrees to do can be undone. He’s not God, he’s not the ruler of the world in perpetuity, and his words aren’t etched into tablets of stone that live on forever and ever.
Daisy -
read Chalmers Johnson’s “The Sorrows of Empire”
Germany hasn’t kicked us out. The USA still has bases there, but since Germany didn’t support the Iraq invasion to our liking, our strategy is to redeploy to bases in countries that are more willing (southern Europe and central Asia)
We still have bases in Saudi Arabia. They are just hidden from view, so as not to upset the public.
The Japanese are paying much of the costs for our bases, especially the ones on Okinawa.
As for explaining, Chalmers Johnson’s point is that militarism runs our world strategy. Having bases everywhere has become an end in itself.
Bush ahs already “bound” us to Iraq for a long time to come. The only question about the next president is whether he/she is trying to start leaving, or trying to find reasons to stay. A dangerous ticket for America is McCain/Huckabee. Possibly 16 years of wars, deficits and bad judges. Think about it. And DO something about it.
War, military bases, and paying off corrupt Iraqi leaders to allow our “enduring” presence isn’t the only strategy for bringing peace, justice, and open markets to the Middle East.
George W. Bush wouldn’t know how to lead a democracy movement if it was laid out in front of him paint by numbers style.
We all have the ability to lead a movement for peace and justice. Don’t get discouraged. Get involved.
We have a long history of “bringing” war, violence and huge amounts of weapons to the Middle East.
McCain warned yesterday that “like it or not” there will be more wars (with him at the helm). Romney, responding to that statement, said he hopes he’s wrong that there will be more wars. So here’s the question: who’s more dangerous? McCain or Romney?
General Petraeus said everything is going much better there. bush says that we’re winning. Dick says that there’s a huge improvement in Iraq. McCain says “It’s safe over there now.”
If all this is true then why would we need to commit troops for so long? I smell BS.
Elect John Edwards. He has promised to have our troops out in 10 months. He is also the most qualified to take back our country from the mega-corporations and the wealthy and give it back to “we the people”. Edwards is the only viable candidate who is not currently and will not in the future be beholding to lobbyists, Big Business, Big Pharma, et al. He refuses to accept their donations in order that he will not “owe” anything to any one or all of them. Because he refuses to be bought and paid for by the wealthy, Big Media, particularly Fox and CNN, are working diligently to discredit him and nullify his candidacy. Remember the old saying, “out of sight, out of mind”. They truly WANT him out! He is a threat to their cushy million dollar plus salaries. Both Clinton and Obama are accepting gifts and donations from the lobbyists, et al. Thus, both of them are being bought by the wealthy. Who do think will be better for “we the people”? http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/
McCain is an idiot. We are still in Japan and Germany only because of the Cold War. We occupied those countries as we defeatee them in a war they started for natural resources and world domination. Often when we close a base in Germany, the biggest concern is the loss to the local economy, just like in the US.
Iraq is just a conquest by the US for natural resources and world domination (so who are the bad guys now?) and we will be there to protect “our” oil until we have taken it all away.
Too bad Edwards is on the way out. Obama still might be OK.
It is also too bad that we don’t get an accurate score on these primaries. There is such a disparity with the results. Even Msnbc
had Ron Paul coming in first or second in the previous primaries. Check it out!
“When the Bush administration launched its attack on Iraq in 2003, it assured the American public that the war would be quick, cheap, and easy.”
So now people are opposing the war on the grounds that it wasn’t quick and cheap (for us). Now I can oppose the war AND oppose the quick, cheap, disappointed opposers.
I’ve often said that President Bush’s legacy, moron, already is known. Beyond that, however, the future is hard to see. One possibility is that he will have killed Republicanism, Democracy, New Orleans, America, Christianity, Iraq, Afghanistan, science, the environment, health care, roads, education, and pretty much anything else he touched.
Hey Everybody! Please stop calling what we are doing in Iraq a WAR. We won the war we started in 2003 after a very short bombardment Bush and Rummy called “Shock and Awe”. What we have in Iraq is a typical FUBAR of an occupation. We need to pay attention to Ron Paul; and get our troops out of all the countries which we are still occupying. We can then downsize the military, and save a ton of money because we won’t need all those arms and bullets, etc. We should also stop making cold war weaponery.
locust, one of their best bases is in Turkey. Incirlik AFB, into Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Syria, in and out also a refueling stop.
inspector, I could care a wit about DR. Ron
McCain says he wouldn’t care if we stay in Iraq for 100 years as long as US troops aren’t being wounded or killed. Any idiot (except McCain) can see that US troops in Iraq will never be safe and will always be targets. So the real question to this fool is how many American injuries and deaths a year are acceptable to him because for sure they are going to happen. Is one, one hundred, or 1,000 too many?
Ginger, if Big Business, Big Pharma, the wealthy, Big Media, particularly Fox and CNN, are working diligently to discredit JOHN EDWARDS and nullify his candidacy because he refuses to be bought and paid for — and if he refuses to accept their donations in order that he will not “owe” anything to any one or all of them, then HE’S THE ONLY ONE THAT IS FIT TO OCCUPY THE WHITE HOUSE.
JOHN EDWARDS FOR PRESIDENT
The Military-Industrial-Complex, after long searching has found its ideal war in occupying Iraq, and will never voluntarily abandon that Golden Goose.
Got any ideas?
John McCain needs to urgently return to Vietnam!
He left something important over there whilst doing a corrupt government’s bidding. It’s called ‘a brain’ and often comes with a set of morals and humane understandings.
He seems to be totally devoid of each, so let’s pack him off to find what he so tragically lacks…
__________________
The following is a *must read* article by Simon Jenkins of the Guardian.
I suspect it may soon feature here @ C-D as a separate article (?) but for now, you an read it on this link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2248989,00.html
“Enjoy”
( -if that’s the right word to use, vis-à-vis this tragic topic?)
xx
Like it or not the next president McCain is the smartest of them all he actually knows and understands the mentality of the average American and he can exploit that to the hilt.
The Bush reign has been most educational for me. Democracy and empire are NOT compatible, and my fellow Americans have docilely allowed our government to shift even further from the government of, by, and for the people to a top down government of “dominion” rather than of service. I watched the people around me “rally round the flag” and felt the extreme social pressure and disapproval when I dared to point out the facts. Some closed their ears….. others, outraged that I would dare to speak out….. attacked me and my perceived “lack of patriotism”. I quickly found out who were manipulatable, who had the courage to speak out, and who were intelligent and thoughtful and asked the right questions but avoided the “risk” of going against the crowd. It was a terrifying time for me…… a realization that America is basically no different from Nazi Germany in that our people are easy to intimidate and manipulate, and fearful of being as one man described me a few years back “out of step”. It is NOT as I had once thought…… Americans in their diversity were immune to the sheep like crowd mentality that let the Nazis come into power. We are in fact just as subject to the herd mentality as any group of people…. uniform or diverse.
This war is driven by something akin to “school spirit”…….. Hurrah for our team….. War for Americans is a “team sport”, and we carry within us that same “go along with the crowd” … “safety in numbers” spirit as other humans…… not the immaginary, fiercely independent “can do”, independent, “think for yourself” pioneering spirit we like to endow ourselves with.
The war in Iraq was a scam foisted on a willing American public… Our people were in fact complicit in their own deception… They by their unwillingness to examine the facts realistically and ask the questions that obviously needed asking share the guilt of our president and vice president, and others at the top…… The guilt for hundreds of thousands of deaths and untold misery. Those of us who did speak out…. myself being one…. did NOT speak out loudly enough or with enough conviction, authority, or force…. and our words alone were a wholly inadequate bulwark against the tide of madness that enveloped this nation.
What platform is there for us to speak and be heard and taken seriously? Is there one? It is time, having failed as we have to have any influence whatsoever on the course of events for us to examine what happened……. and knowing that history will in fact repeat itself…. as even now it is attempting to do in Iran…. find ways to have real influence on events….. to put the brakes on the madness. Or perhaps that is impossible. Perhaps it is futile …. nothing more than a curse… to see when others do not…. Knowing that the vision that is so clear to you is so greatly at odds to the “group-vision” of those around you that it will be dismissed as nonsense.
The internet is the ONLY open forum available to us. It is however open to everybody else….. to the sane and the crazed…… to the conformist and the indpendent thinker. Does it in fact offer anything to us other than the dubious comfort of beign able to find groups of like minded folks….. and the security of knowing that “I am not alone”.
I have no answers…….. only questions…… disturbing questions (to me)… and I despair of sanity every taking hold and reason and justice ever being the dominant principles of American governance.
Pardon my rant…. but I find myself deeply depressed at the course events have taken in this country……. and the obvious fact that our current crop of (viable) candidates lack real vision and courage…… Perhaps I am wrong…… I hope so…. but history both recent and distant support me.
Howard
You Hillary and Obama voters actually think they will get us out of Iraq?
In what respect do “negotiations” between “the U.S. government” and “the Iraqi government” require anything other than The Dick sitting down before a mirror?
From Webster’s: Sovereignty … 2 b: Freedom from external control: AUTONOMY.
Is this or is this not what brought down the USSR? Does this or does this not sound like the plan exposed earlier in the W administration to spend us into bankruptcy so we’d be forced into a “pay as you go” relationship with private companies to provide essential services and turn back the clock to a 19th century federal system?
I don’t want to worry you guys in the States, but in a BBC interview last night, following Bush’s latest outpouring of garbage, a US political “expert” said that there was no chance of a Democrat being president this time round. Is this all a “done deal” or just speculation?
I find the idea of McCain as president, more scary than the present incumbent in the White House. He will still have the backing of the existing neocons, and is already speaking their language.
Is anyone able to stop this juggernaut, before it rolls over us all?
AndyUK, I keep hearing the same thing here. The GOP knows it has NO chance of winning an election fair and square, so it has already begun planning for another fraudulent election, again with a passive press and a compliant conservative Supreme Court. And you know what, they will probably get away with it because Americans will just make a lot of noise and protest but that’s about it.
“Is anyone able to stop this juggernaut, before it rolls over us all?”
Andy, unfortunately American’s are at the mercy of propaganda and too ignorant to make a reasoned choice. The extent of this ignorance has been exploited by Bush and Cheney with frightening results. Combined with the Dem Congressional leadership’s weak capitulation, the reality of American Fascism haunts us. The combination of Christian dominion and Capitalist concentrated wealth have combined for the purpose of world empire. The checks and balances may have to form outside of America.
Doom n Gloom, the ignorance of the general populace never fails to astound me (I know this sounds like arrogance on my part, but I don’t mean it like that), particularly given the divide between rich and poor, in both our countries. If we look at the war expenditure, and then take the subprime crisis (which we also have in the UK), the state of healthcare, then one would think that the country at large, would vote out a right wing administration, because they would be aware of the injustice of the “system”. In years gone by, this situation would have been the catalyst for enabling a more socialist (not communist mind) party to sieze power. I think, like so many on this site, that the edges have become blurred, and there is little difference between any of the main political camps, because they are all in the pay of big business, and the lobby groups. They can afford to maintain lavish election campaigns, and can use the media to “spin” their way to victory. Any promises made on the route to the top will be abandoned, in favour of repaying their sponsors.
I suppose that with McCain, at least you know what you are going to get (and I hope that he is not your next President), because he talks freely about staying in countries such as Japan and Vietnam, and more worryingly, about staying in Iraq for one hundred years. On the strength of these statements, and the desire of the American people to bring the troops home, they will surely not vote him in, will they?
So what? All the next administration has to say is “That was then, this is now.”
You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free
It should be clear to most people that if a Republican gets elected the lunacy will continue full speed ahead with no end in sight. I wished I could believe that the American people were brighter than the likes of McCain. But, I have read to many letters to the editor from right wing nuts who believe endless war is the answer to worlds problems. These people believe wholeheartedly that any compromise with other countries is weakness on our part. They don’t see where other countries like Iran have as much right to their own style of government as we do. Even if we don’t agree with it. I really don’t know where they are coming from? Why they only see the world in the terms they do? But, it seems to be prevalent in the Republican Party. This ‘kick ass’ philosophy that doesn’t work! This endless war philosophy that’s only going to destroy us in the end. They don’t seem to comprehend it’s costing billions of dollars to wage endless war. That the day is going to come when the country is bankrupt from their endless wars. These Republican’s should have figured out by now you don’t force feed democracy to other countries and come out the winner in the story! But, they seem to be so blind they don’t live in the real world. Hence the problems in Iraq and Afghanistan both that are only going to grow. So people had better start worrying about another Republican getting into office. If they have to hold their nose and vote for Hillary or Obama they better learn how.
That sounds strange and perhaps weird in more than one way. I’ve never heard the occupied signing agreement with the occupier asking to remain occupied for another 5 years. What are Iraqis thinking? Do they want another million Iraqis killed as a measure to control population explosion?
Second, these people are wasting their time with their petition drive. The US has shown that it does not respect any agreement, covenant, convention and the like when it does not want to (think about the Geneva Convention on torture and the breaking of the UN charter on invading another sovereign country).