As the world awaits Barack Obama's decision on Afghanistan, a lethal
myth has spread. It says that standing up to the military will doom him
to be a single-term president.
BAGHDAD — After nearly a dozen delays and a final, rowdy session,
Iraq's parliament on Sunday passed a law setting national elections for
January, averting for now a political crisis that threatened to unravel
the country's slow progress toward stability.
Approval of the law eases a growing source of concern for the Obama
administration. President Barack Obama is considering sending 34,000
more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and successful elections here are key
to a major reduction in U.S. combat forces in Iraq by next summer.
President Obama's pledge to withdraw US troops from Iraq and end combat operations there by September 2010 is under threat because of increased levels of violence and bickering within the Iraqi parliament, the top US general in the country has told The Times.
General Ray Odierno said that militant groups were likely to conduct a bloody campaign in the months ahead, as Iraqis prepare for national elections at the beginning of next year.
The US military commander in Iraq is
set to announce that the US will withdraw 4,000 of its soldiers from
the country by the end of October.
General Ray Odierno is due to tell the House of Representatives
Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the US is speeding up its
military withdrawal to complete it by September 2010.
In an advance copy of his address, Odierno said: "We have
approximately 124,000 troops and 11 Combat Teams operating in Iraq
today. By the end of October, I believe we will be down to 120,000
troops.
BAGHDAD -- U.S. troops could be forced by Iraqi voters to
withdraw a year ahead of schedule under a referendum the Iraqi
government backed Monday, creating a potential complication for
American commanders concerned about rising violence in the country's
north.
WASHINGTON - For years, US military planners have worried about the risks of maintaining a large force in Iraq. Now, they are worrying about how to get it out.
In what is shaping up to be the biggest logistical challenge since the Vietnam War, the Pentagon is grappling with how to transfer out what a top official calls "mountains of equipment,'' along with 143,000 troops and a similar number of civilians, amid the continuing threat of roadside bombs, ambushes, and suicide attacks from insurgents and terrorists.
Parliament
members are afraid to attend meetings. Iraq's nascent economy is
deteriorating. Hundreds of armed militias are ready to fight for their
own interests. This is Iraq today.
American troops were not welcomed with flowers in Iraq but their departure from cities and towns has been.
Iraqis
celebrated National Sovereignty Day Tuesday as U.S. troops were yanked
out of populated centres and put into remote bases.
In time,
even that hidden presence will begin to grate on the Iraqis, just as a
U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia had spurred Osama bin Laden and
others.
“From now on, the war they started is ours.”
Seemingly
these words of an Iraqi soldier, noted in a Guardian U.K. story, were
uttered in pride. This was on June 30: National Sovereignty Day, the
day U.S. troops withdrew from Iraqi cities. Sorry, but it sounds more
like someone enthusing over a case of venereal disease.
Congressman
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made the following statement on June 30, 2009 regarding the
announcement that U.S. troops have left the cities and towns of Iraq
and turned over formal security to Iraqi security forces:
The
withdrawal of some U.S. combat troops from Iraq’s cities is welcome and
long overdue news. However, it is important to remember that this is
not the same as a withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors from
Iraq.
