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Today's Top News
The Iraq Withdrawal: Obama vs. the Pentagon
This Monday, Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, asked officials in DC to approve contingency plans to delay the withdrawal of US combat forces. The next day, the New York times published an op-ed asking president Obama to delay the US withdrawal and keep some tens of thousands of troops in Iraq indefinitely. Both the Pentagon and NY times article argue that prolonging the occupation is for Iraq's own good. According to these latest attempts to prolong the occupation, if the US were to leave Iraqis alone the sky would fall, a genocidal civil war will erupt, and Iran will takeover their nation and rip it apart.
Excuses to prolong the military intervention in Iraq have been changing since 1990. Whether is was liberating Kuwait, protecting the region from Iraq, protecting the world from Iraq's WMDs, punishing Iraq for its role in the 9/11 attacks, finding Saddam Hussien and his sons, fighting the Baathists and Al-Qaeda, or the other dozens of stories the U.S. government never ran out of reasons to justify a continuous intervention in Iraq. Under President Bush, the withdrawal plan was linked to conditions on the ground, and had no fixed deadlines. Bush only promise what that "as Iraqis stand up, we will stand down". But Iraqis never managed to stand up, and the US never had to stand down.
Obama came with a completely different doctrine that thankfully makes prolonging the occupation harder than just making up a new lame excuse. He has promised on the campaign trail to withdraw all combat troops by August 31st of this year bringing the total number of US troops down to less than 50,000. Obama has also announced repeatedly that he will abide by the binding bi-lateral agreement between the two governments that requires all the US troops and contractors to leave Iraq by the end of 2011 without leaving any military bases behind. Both these promises are time-based, and not linked to the conditions on the ground. In addition, President Obama announced last week his intention to call an end to Operation Iraqi Freedom by August 31st, and to start the new non-combat mission as of September 1st this. The new mission, renamed "Operation New Dawn", should end by December 31st 2011 with the last US soldier and contractor out of Iraq.
Conditions on the ground in Iraq are horrible. After seven years under the US occupation, Iraqis are still without water, electricity, education, or health care. Iran's intervention and control of the Iraqi government stays at unprecedented levels. Iraq's armed forces are still infiltrated by the militias and controlled by political parties. But so far, the Obama administration has not attempted to use any of these facts as a reason to change the combat forces withdrawal plan, or to ask the Iraqi government to renegotiate the bi-lateral security agreement. This week's calls to prolong the occupation are surprising because they expose a conflict between the Pentagon on the one hand and the White House and Congress on the other hand. In fact, the executive and legislative branches in both the US and Iraq seem to be in agreement about implementing the time-based withdrawal, but the Pentagon is disagreeing with them all.
Obama should not forget that he is the Commander-in-Chief, and should stand up to the Pentagon. Iraq is broken, but the US military occupation is not a part of the solution. We cannot fix what the military occupation has damaged by prolonging it, neither can we help Iraqis build a democratic system by occupying them. We cannot protect Iraqis from other interventions by continuing our own. The first step in helping Iraqis work for a better future is sticking to the time-based withdrawal plan that Obama has promised and the two governments have agreed upon. President Obama should send a clear message to the Iraqi people to confirm that he is going to fulfill his promises and abide by the binding security agreement with Iraq, and this message must also be clear to the American people in this pivotal elections year.
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53 Comments so far
Show AllBut he's just Gates' BushCompany Buffalo Soldier-in-chief. The BUCK$ stop at the CIA Secretary of WAR!
The New York Times op-ed is in the ballpark of Judith Miller. They never learn anything at the NYT.
That is the first thing to come to mind: "Do you honestly believe Obama isn't on the same page with the Pentagon?"
This writer might be one of the hirelings of the CIA/Defense Department who's job it is to infiltrate and blog.
Are you familiar with this man's history? (raedinthemiddle)I believe he is basing his comments on Odierno sez no and NYT and Pentagon say no, Obama has said nothing yet. He is simply pointing out why BO should say yes.
as the iraqi economy stands down, the american investments stand up. the oil companies are moving in to take over the wells that saddam had socilaized. saddam's tax rates on the wealthy have dropped, from 45% to the 15% imposed by the shah of iraq, paul bremmer. the oil extracted from the sands of iraq and shipped to the international markets will now bring dollars, not the euros that saddam took as payment since december 2000. the american contractors, for nearly 7 years now, have been doing work that iraqi could easily have done for far less money, to say nothing of the national and family stability they would have enjoyed had their labor value not been preempted by the ugly american who were imported into their country to make 10 times what they do for work they, highly educated iraqis, could do well. imagine how we now feel about mexicans crossing our border to work for cheap. what if these mexican were taking our jobs and getting paid even five times what we made to do them? say you want a revolution? well, you'd get one, right here in the u.s.a. it's remarkable that iraq has what peace it does, considering that the neo-liberal exploitation of their country was the second raping they received; the first, of course, was the pillaging and unprovoked attack by the most fierce and rapacious killing machine ever devised by mankind, as the pentagon proved once again that it is the world's leading exporter of terror. against a relatively defenseless country that never even designed an attack against us, it has managed to rack up at least 150,000 civilain casualties. warning to genghis khan and attilla the hun: you are about to be upstaged in the annals of history. much more of this and you will soon be receding from its pages.
well put johnnyu
eric gregory: thanks. i was furious when i wrote my little piece there. and i forgot to mention the deaths from the u.n. sanctions, which were real genocide against a helpless country. madeline albright thought it was okay, but many of us didn't agree with what in retrospect, was probably a war crime. and like lucky said, the war created a sunni refugee problem, with 2 million sunnis internally displaced by war and another 1.5 million fleeing to find new homes in syria, jordan, or turkey. we'll soon find out if our shia puppets will allow them a right of return, or at least compensate them for their destroyed homes and property. mcchrystal engineered this sunni displacement to appease the shia militants and reduce the number of sunni militiamen to whom we have to pay $300.00 per month not to bother us. that's a king's ransom in an economically and militarily ravaged country.
Agree, except I think your casualty number is off by nearly an order of magnitude - I thought it was 1.2 million innocents dead + several million refugees.
lucky: you're right. i was using conservative numbers so as not exaggerate. the terrible thing is that the pentagon admits that it has never, even in the first gulf war, counted iraqi casualties. what a difference from vietnam, when every friday night chet huntley would broadcast to the nation how many thousands of viet cong we killed that week. we'd hear about our losses, and our puppet government's too. to state to the whole world the truth about the hundreds of thousands that we have extinguished in iraq since january 17, 1991, the first night we bombed baghdad, would be to admit ourselves into the mass murderers' hall of fame, where the footsteps of both khan and attila, while followed, would soon become barely audible to the ear of history.
If Obama is really in charge, he will be calling Gates at the Pentagon to ask him when Odierno (and MacCrystal) will be retiring.
sheepherder -
Do you really think this classified request from Odierno for approval of the contingency plans to delay US troop withdrawal from Iraq was leaked to the New York Times by somebody other than Robert Gates himself?
This is a replay of the leaked McChrystal memo a few months ago seeking a 45,000 troop surge in Afghanistan that spawned Barack Obama's awful escalation address at West Point. Frankly, I think focusing all this sound and fury on Obama's subjective mental state (is he a puppet charlatan, or is he well meaning but being misled?) is a totally, completely unproductive red herring.
What's going on here is an orchestrated, consistent propaganda campaign, emanating from the very top of the Pentagon and the hydra-headed US intelligence community, to try to prolong the American military presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere under the rubric of fighting a war on terror. The American people voted on precisely this shit in the election of 2008. End of debate.
If some of our soldiers and some of our spies don't like the end result, then fuck 'em and the horses they rode in on. Replace these scoundrels with generals and spooks who will execute policy rather than sabotage it.
Bill from Saginaw
It does not matter who released the memo. It is clear that people in the Pentagon do not want to leave Iraq, which is opposed to Obama's stated policy. If Obama were to fire Odierno and or MacCrystal, Gates might either see the light or resign. Good riddance.
Very confused article. What is he really saying, that OBAMA stand up to the Pentagon? Why on Earth would he do that? He's in thrall to the MIC. Big "Defense" is in the driver's seat, as demonstrated by the obscenity of the WAR budget. And Barak dances (well) with the devil.
Gary
"A visitor from Mars could easily pick out the civilized nations. They have the best implements of war."
-- Herbert V. Prochnow
Here's a riddle I leave 50,000 troops, (renamed ballerinas), without leaving any military bases.
I guess Iraq has a lot of Bed and Breakfast accomadations.
Exactly, we are just waiting to hear the exact words Obama will use to veil the remaining occupation.
I have long ago concluded that any statement made publicly by one of our generals or admirals has the blessing and approval of the Commander-in-Chief who can only fire himself by abdicating.
Another example of the old "bait and switch" by Obama....
say you going to do something then do the opposite....
every time Obama speaks I now stick my fingers in my ears and go na na na na
because it's all lies!
how many times do you have to be stabbed in the back by lying scumsuckers like the democrats and still pull out the classic "cognitive dissonance" - "well they really do want to do something but it's thsoe mean ole republicans"
it's quite pathetic!
"..how many times do you have to be stabbed in the back by lying scumsuckers .."
You have your chance in November this year.
The ruling oligarchy still needs to control who gets the oil - why else do you think we are there.
The 'shock and awe' intentionally caused chaos to be generated so we could militarily take control with no organized resistance. We intentionally played the Sunni/Shia/Arab/Turkman/Kurds off against each other to keep the chaos going so we could say "Nature abhors a vacuum'. Never fear, the US is here -to steal your resources."
But I could be wrong !
-'Excuses to prolong the military intervention in Iraq have been changing since 1990. "
Yes but we should give the NYT credit for never developing any doubt that the current cover story is the truth.
And don't forget to give the author credit for believing that the king would do the right thing,...if only he could "stand up to" his evil advisors.
"Obama should not forget that he is the Commander-in-Chief"
My guess is Fox News only uses the term Commander in Chief, when the president is Republican. However, to be truthful, Obama seems to be taking his orders from others, rather than the other way around.
Obama's job is to win the war on terrorism and bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Throw in thousands more troops or put some more mercenaries to thump those varmit insurgents and terrorists. You loafers want Obama to fail so that the Republicans can take over. Suit yourself but don't complain when Sarah Palin is in the White House.
??? Who the hell are you? I want Obama to succed: succeed in fulfilling his campaign promises! Get out of Iraq, rein in wall street, fucking create jobs here in the US, stop wasting a bunch of money for oil interests in the Middle East, take for-profit out of health provision by single-payer at best or public option at least, start caring about his real life constituents instead of corporations, back truly clean energy, on and on and on!
Would I rather have a Republican in the White House? At this point, any Republican would be better because then at least fucks like you would be able to get past your own blindness and fight against the corporate driven policies that Obama is now espousing and which the Republicans will definitely continue. "Loafers"! Where the hell do you come off judging me and the others here, you have no idea what we do in the real world. I am, as a matter of fact, quite involved in my real life with many community solar advocacy campaigns such as Solar Sonoma County, the Climate Protection Campaign, and the Anhus Institute. I work with the California Majority Rule Campaign, and have in the past always been involved in action for change. Hell, I worked hard to get Obama elected! What the hell are you doing? From appearances you are agitating for increasing involvement in Iraq, coupled with increased wasting of our financial resources in that fool's errand. You would be doing this country a favor if you did a little more loafing yourself, rather than advocating that we take ten steps back instead of one forward.
By the way, Obama's job is not to win the war on terrorism, its to help secure oil resources in the Middle East, a task which is not going so well.
I was a Republican voter ever since I was eligible to vote from 1968 to 2004 and then I voted Democrat in 2008. I have campaigned for tough causes too such as tort reform, lower taxes in other states, and gun rights. Generally, I'm a conservative but I might get into some progressive ideas if they're not too radical. We all want to get out of Iraq but we have to be realistic. You can't just cut and run like that. Troops have to be sent in to stabilize the nation and get the troops out. Personally, I'll take the contractors to the troops. Oil is a necessary resource and I know you all wanna cry about mother earth but forget it. Demand is high and drilling is inevitable. Call it raping mother earth but that's business. Obama has to make compromises and bad things will happen but business is business.
There's your problem: you are willing to sacrifice so many things: the future of this ountry, civil rights, millions of people, trillions of dollars, and jobs here at home just so you can selfishly continue to drive your oil-fuled car for another 20 years. You are typically American: you don't give a fuck about the future beyond your own life.
Hey, it's not my problem. We're in this system and whoever succeeds deserves more. I learned how to handle the system and take as many advantages of it as I could. There are winners and losers. If you don't like it here, then move to socialist Europe, Canada, or Venezuela.
"I learned how to handle the system and take as many advantages of it as I could. There are winners and losers."
How very thoughtful and compassionate of you. The Greatest Generation was defined by American men and women who did the right thing, not for fame or material gain. You are not them, but instead are a life-long self-serving Republican.
We stay here, rather than move, to implement change, to make life better not for ourselves, but for our fellow man and their children. You may find the "systems" in other countries easier to take advantage of, so perhaps you should move instead. We won't miss you, promise.
It is your problem if you care about your kids, because this car is heading off a cliff. "We" are trying to turn the wheel while you simply want to keep driving straight because you will most likely be dead before the real pain starts and, even if you aren't, you have "taken as many advantages of it as (you) could". Yep, you are a great American: fuck everyone else (losers) as long as I (you: a winner) make out. And you think that makes you right? Well, it certainly makes you right-wing. Unfortunately, most of the people in this country are just losers (and getting more so) in your view and deserve what they get. According to your view, when the shit comes down, we should just exterminate the 10's of millions (100's?) in this country who are the losers in the fascist system. Your views are repugnant and this is MY country, not Europe or Canada or Venezuela (all fine countries). So, I think I'll stay, if nothing else than to fight the cancer that is killing us and consists of greedy bastards like yourself. Tell me to leave my country!! Obviously you have no love for democracy, the rule of law, and the real freedom of our citizens.
Its your selfish sort who have gotten the country into the fix its been in since the Reagan years. Now we're stuck with a selfish hyper-individualized population of consumers incapable of bringing the country back into some kind of economic balance and responsible fiscal policies. Meanwhile China, India, Brazil, and others are forging ahead. Cutthroat selfishness ends up destroying societies eventually. The social darwinism that leads to a society with an aggressive minority of "winners" at the top and a disempowered and ever poorer majority oppressed ends in a ruined society.
Your reasoning will not work on most Republicans; you used the word "darwinism". If you could somehow work in the words "god's will", then they may listen.
Only true-blu Republicans live in Encino. EncinoM-your short paragraph pretty much sumns up the mentality of Republicans. When I used to drive thru Encino, I always double checked before venturing across the main streets because people routinely blew the red lights. It was a classic Republican attitude.
to encinom: "all men are created equal", said the elephants as they stomped among the chickens.
Good lord man, you are one sick bastard. Please read this book, from start to finish. Don't jump ahead, but when you get to the part about 'social dominators' please look in the mirror.
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
Nice taunts, EncinoM. - You made me laugh.
Lookin' for that kind of trouble, you've come to the right place.
Have fun!
(My apologies if you really are that stupid.)
Blind fool, the left should welcome Palin as president, at least we'd have a clear enemy in the White House, not an Uncle Tom posing as a friend of the masses.
You Lesser Evilists, Dem Party Apologists & Dem Kool-aid Drinkers are what's destroying America.
Obama vs. the Pentagon? Obomba is the liar in chief of the Pentagon!
Blackwater Rescued Progressive House Rep. Alan Grayson from Niger's 'Civil Unrest'
http://www.lucianne.com/thread/?artnum=524952
If you check out this link and the comments thereafter, you will see the type of people this guy comes from. Total troll. Thanks for the link though. Its nice to see that even though Blackwater/Xe are the worst of the worst, they would not go so far as to disobey orders to do their job and provide the diplomatic guard duty they are paid for. We would be truly lessened by the loss of Alan Grayson, a true patriot, fighting against corporate and military corruption. Now go home to your Lucianne.com little fascist.
Did Grayson really need rescuing? If we have a Consulate or Embassy in that coutry
were all the staff also rescued? If not, then Grayson probably didn't need rescuing.
I keep saying this: Odiemo (and McCrystal) are in contempt of the CinC. If Obomber had any cojones, he would sack them.
As an aside, note how the NYT (and other fawning corporate media) has now framed the mess in Iraq an "occupation", and no longer a war. Am waiting for them to bring the same level of truth to the Afghanistan occupation.
WTF- Your first sentence says it all. The Bush WH was very good at giving Admirals and Generals a push towards the retirement door, especially if they opposed the agitation and propaganda associated with trying to justify attacking Iran (Think Admiral William Fallon and General Peter Pace) or General Eric Shinseki for warning that we would need several hundred thousand troops to properly occupy Iraq.
Yes, it's time for Obama to show he's got a pair and fire at least Odierno.
I see where you are coming from, and appreciate the irony. If I recall correctly, both Shinseki and Fallon were requested by the CinC for their judgment, that was in turn presented to the CinC and JCS before going to the media. They were doing as ordered, and the CinC did not like what he heard. Hence, early retirement.
In the case of McChrystal, and now Odiemo, both preemptively went to the press/Congress without first briefing the CinC and JCS on issues that were contrary to the CinC's orders. I believe this to be true, and are grounds for contempt.
If I'm wrong, go ahead and shoot.
Remember that Truman fired MaCarthur when he disobeyed presidential orders. Obama can fire Odierno for the same reason.
I recollect Bush smirking that as War President he was going to use the political capital he reckoned eh was given by the electorate on the USA citizenry. He was gleeful on screen with his wimpy grin. The USA citizens who voted him a comfortable victory in its rigged system called a democracy it wishes to export to the entire middle east for imitation in the mirror image its greatest friend that shining light the State called Israel. There lies the disgusting misrepresentation of what has occurred in the world to make all and sundry safe and sound. Its ongoing colonialism to make everyone safe and free.
Obama like his counterparts will only proceed with what the bastion of the system in place determines is politically expedient to remain 'Commander in Chief'. Never in the history of mankind has such power and such destructive forces been unleashed. The big difference to-day is this power and the deviation of science to threaten and to bully to force and to kill humans and other living organisms been developed financed and used. The military are idolised in the USA. Its education system has evolved to indoctrinate and to pollute inquiring minds. Its very free media is free to monopolise and to spout propaganda. Its example to be emulated is taken for granted. Its electorate is ignorant and co-opted by major forces that are so similar as to be indistinguishable. They have handed power and corrupt bankers and corporations assuming a necessary legitimacy to instil fear and terror abroad for the sake of a supposed freedom? They have never had the courage or the guts to examine their own history and their own pathetic image of their governments actions in defenceless third world countries and they never even bother to examine the destruction their great military has continued to unleashed. Against non- whites by predominantly white nationals, note! Blatant racism with a psyhchotic pseudo-religious base they perversely call 'Christianity'. Look to 'The Holy Land'!
As 'head honcho' in Empire the USA has dragged all too willing political elites in other democracies along their road. The actions of USA governments have major effects everywhere. These effects are terrible and will soon cause major fractures and social upheaval in various countries. Such wonderful potential had the USA. The dream has become a nightmare for more and more populations who are prone to resist. Corruption and greed have smothered liberties. Threats and bribery, criminal intrusion of covert terrorism and arms exports are instruments where millions scream and cry in helplessness. The courage of the steadfastness in Palestine of its natives over so long has been truly remarkable in the face of injustice and repression by barbarous forces.
Poor Iraq. One comment at at least 150,000 civilians is much more likely over ten times that number. Is an insurgent in an occupied Iraq or its civil war outbreaks among a variety of factions not to be counted? Are members of Hamas its supporters or Taliban supporters not to be counted. Are these occupied people facing the terror of NATO Israeli force or American arms no to be counted? Are human beings not to be counted, while all our good people are to be counted? I sit only children over 15 and most women that are to be counted. Are the unborn? Are those sickened with depleted uranium? Those disappeared, Those tortured? Those interned? Well figures are figures right? I recall Chomsky's point about the numbers killed in SE Asia and how within millions there are no accounts to be properly assessed. Yet Jew's 6m in their holocaust is not even to be examined without being accused of anti-Semitic.?
Its as if The Pentagon Papers never were released? Its believe the military! Believe us! We're the good honest guys! What bull! We promote civil wars. We arm train and bribe consistently. We support one side then willy nilly support the other. We finance and export terrorism all across the globe particularly in countries where Muslims happen live. Somalia and Iran can speak about this terrorism now. Afghanistan and Lebanon, Sudan and Algeria, Indonesia and Central Asian States, Nigeria and Yemen with our allied dictatorships in the middle east like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Never has terrorism been unleashed on this global scale. And its an unending drip feed of tax dollars. What a waste of humanity! What a diminished spirit. A numbed dumbed down populace.
Not until there is a civil war back home are things likely to change course. What chance of that? Almost zero! Preferable to the pain abroad for which we are largely responsible by our silence and our apathy. Politics will seek power. Like bankers seek wealth. Corruption rules. We are sick nationally. Medical care for all is necessary. And justice is required for criminal leadership. We must do all in our power to change things at home. There lies our only chance. And we must be prepare to fight. To defend our brothers and sisters who are being murdered and raped plundered and terrorised by monsters we did much to promote to positions of power by our own activities. The time is well nigh! Silence and inactivity is not an option. Soon all will be unlawful. What happened the rule of law for one and all? How did it all become so corrupted? Nothing has been addressed. Nothing whatsoever!
There is much truth in what Mr. Jarrar has written here, but his ridiculous notion that Obama is at odds with the Pentagon and that Obama really intends to remove the troops makes the article seem either foolish or disingenuous.
The multi-national corporations for whom this war was started have yet to see the monetary profits they are demanding. They didn't put Obama in the White House for him to lead the U.S. out of Iraq. Like in so many other areas, what Obama has said has little to do with what he does.
more apologist nonsense! give obama credit for doing EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS!
Belive what he does NOT what he says.....
TOO MANY WORDS. TRUE ACTION, anyone?
Just as was predicted here. We seem to have forgotten that Iraq is an illegal war, and that the USA/Bush et al have committed numerous war crimes. No investigation or trials yet over war crimes.
People are just moving on like driving past a traffic accident.
Now Obamageddon is committing war crimes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. SOS.
0bama vs the Pentagon?:
Picture you upon my knee
Just tea for two
And two for tea
Just me for you
And you for me alone
Nobody near us to see us or hear us,
No friends or relations
On weekend vacations,
We won't have it known, dear,
That we own a telephone, dear...
Day will break and you'll wake,
And start to bake a sugar cake
For me to take for all the boys to see.
We will raise a family
A boy for you
And a girl for me
Oh, can't you see how happy we would be...
(Caesar & Harbuch, obviously prescient).
Obama vs. the Pentagon?
I am not sure I believe that one, however, if it ever came to that then Obama is the private and the Pentagon is the general.