US Defense Secretary Gates urges post-2011 occupation of Iraq

[Hannah Bell]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged in a speech Tuesday that the US occupation of Iraq be continued beyond a December 31, 2011 deadline for the withdrawal of all American forces. He argued that the US military must remain on Iraqi soil to counter Iranian influence and maintain US power both within the country and the broader region.

Gates made the remarks in what is likely to be one of his last major speeches... He is to step down as the Pentagon’s civilian chief, a role he began under George W. Bush and continued under Barack Obama, on June 30. Gates is to be replaced by the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta.

Washington and the Iraqi regime headed by Nouri al-Maliki signed a status of forces agreement in November 2008 that calls for the end of all US military presence on Iraqi soil by the end of this year. While President Obama declared last August that the US military had ceased all “combat operations” in Iraq, over 46,000 American troops remain deployed in the country and the Pentagon continues to control dozens of bases across Iraq...Gates argued that the Iraqi military is incapable of defending the country...But the main purpose of the US maintaining an occupation force in Iraq, Gates argued, is to “send a powerful signal to the region that we’re not leaving.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/iraq-m26.shtml


If we're leaving, why do we need to send a message that we're not leaving?

[Harmony Blue]

1. Gates is attempting to portray himself

as an Alpha male and wants to show how macho Americans are before leaving Iraq. Of course, the Iraqi citizens who have suffered do not see anything good to come from this macho contest.

[99th_Monkey]

7. Bingo: Iraqi's "do not see anything good" about USA's military occupation. So bring our troops home!

already we've over-stayed our welcome overlong.

Common MIC, you can share just a teensy bit of the pain can't you?

and then "together" we can unite to save SS, Medicare and the soul
of our nation in oue fell swoop.

[pampango]

9. Juan Cole agrees: I)t seems to me most likely that the US will have to leave...

http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/congress-yankee-come-home-iraq-pakistan-yankee-go-home.html

Al-Maliki said a couple of weeks ago that he would go to each of the major political blocs for advice on whether to request a new agreement with the US to leave some troops in Iraq. This statement was widely misinterpreted, I think, in the West. What al-Maliki was actually saying was that he refused unilaterally to extend the US troop presence.

I can’t imagine that any of the major blocs in parliament with the possible exception of the Kurds will advise al-Maliki to do a new SOFA that retains American soldiers in his country. And so it seems to me most likely that the US will have to leave...

The Mahdi Army militia roiled the country in 2004 and could do so again. The US sees them as a proxy for Iran, but this view is largely incorrect. They are Shiite Iraqi nativists and don’t like foreigners in general, sort of an Iraqi Tea Party.

[msongs]

2. The adminstration's perpetuation of the Bush/Cheney agenda continues nt

[Hardrada]

3. We are going to lose this fucking war, no matter what.

After the Greek ministers fucked up in the early 1920's by invading Turkey and losing, they were executed!! I would be happy for mere incarceration of our war criminals.

[classysassy]

5. Justice

"Has been a long time coming but it's sure to come"Sleep well tonight,Bush,Chaney,Rummy ,Rice, and the other war criminals inside our country.

[Me.]

4. NO

[99th_Monkey]

8. n/t

[99th_Monkey]

6. Oh PLEASE MIC! Even brutish swine stop gorging themselves every once in a while..give it a break.

MIC = military industrial complex

[Angry Dragon]

10. Time to leave ............. everybody

[sad sally]

11. If the US sticks around Iraq long enough, our troops will be in the middle

of another civil war. As evidenced by this news (and the well-uniformed Mahdi Army, who left their weapons at home), it's way past time for the US to leave:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/thousands-of-sadr-supporters-rally-against-us-in-baghdad/2011/05/26/AGxIgqBH_story.html?du

BAGHDAD — A high-profile Shiite official who led efforts to purge Iraq’s national government of loyalists to Saddam Hussein was shot and killed Thursday night, security officials said, becoming the latest victim in an escalating series of attacks on the country’s political and security leaders.

Ali al-Lami, head of Iraq’s Justice and Accountability Commission, was riding in a car about 8 p.m. in eastern Baghdad when gunmen approached and shot him in the head, officials said.
...
Lami’s efforts to remove members of the Baath Party from the government made him one of the most controversial figures of the post-Hussein era, and his death will probably return attention to the perilous state of security and politics in Iraq more than eight years after the U.S.-led invasion.

The parade by Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army lasted for hours, as the participants — displaying new uniforms resembling the Iraqi flag — marched past tens of thousands of well-wishers supporting Sadr’s call for U.S. forces to abide by their scheduled Dec. 31 departure.

The protesters burned and kicked replicas of American and Israeli flags and carried signs reading “No, No America” and “No, No Israel.”