Obama Admin Begging Iraq To Let Troops Stay

By Steve Hynd

Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end... And under the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government, I intend to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. We will complete this transition to Iraqi responsibility, and we will bring our troops home with the honor that they have earned.

President Obama at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Friday, February 27, 2009

So much for promises and plain speaking. The Obama administration has for some months now been actively advocating that the Iraqi government ask for some of those U.S. troops to stay behind, led by military officers and DoD officials who see their career gravy train drawing to a close to soon for their tastes.

The Associated Press reported late yesterday (citing the ever-popular White Houses "sources" - that is, officials probably authorized to speak and plant a message in the press but granted anonymity anyways) that the Obama administration is "offering" to keep 10,000 troops in Iraq in 2012, beyond the agreed deadline with the Iraqis to withdraw all troops.

While that word "offer" has been repeatedly used by US officials named and unnamed in recent months, a better word might be "pleading."

...A number of senior officers in the Iraqi Army appear eager for the extended presence of the US and the additional training and equipment that would mean. In addition, the ethnic Kurds, who hold a semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq (carved out thanks to a US imposed no-fly zone against Saddam Hussein's forces following the first Gulf War), are lobbying for the US to stay.

But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been largely mum on the matter.

Not quite true. Back in April, Prime Minister Maliki told Admiral Mullen "we've got this":

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ruled out signing a new security pact with the United States to extend the presence of U.S. troops in the country, his office said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The Prime Minister rule out possibility for any new security agreement to prolong the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq, because the (current) document of the strategic agreement (SOFA) is clear in this respect," the statement quoted Maliki as saying in an interview with the local television channel of Biladi to be broadcasted later.

However, Maliki noted that not signing another security agreement doesn't mean that Iraq will not cooperate and coordinate with the United States in the fields of training and arming Iraqi troops, the statement said.

And Maliki repeated the sentiment a few days later.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has pledged that Baghdad would not ask US troops to stay in the country beyond a year-end pullout, his office said on Saturday.

Maliki said that the decision had been taken despite Iraq's desire for stronger military ties with Washington, and alluded to political difficulties he would have in getting approval for any extended American presence.

"We are not going to ask for an extension for US forces, in spite of our keenness to continue cooperation with the United States in all areas, including military," he told a South Korean news organisation, according to a transcript of an April 20 interview released by his office.

It doesn't get any more plain spoken than that. Obama could tale lessons. But the administration's response was to dispatch SecDef Gates to ask maliki again - he got exactly the same response - and then begin a steady dribble of official statements to the effect that Iraq's window of opportunity to ask their liberators to stay was closing rapidly.

Spencer Ackerman exemplified "progressive" ennui with the Obama administration's efforts:

No one in the United States gives a shit about Iraq anymore. "Forgotten war" doesn't begin to cover it... So I wonder if there would be any political consequence to Obama putting an asterisk on his promise... Obama 2012: He Ended* The Iraq War. It won't be true. Just true enough for American appetites.

So much for someone who often advocated for Iraq's own right to self-determination when the last U.S. president was in office, often citing the Center for American Progress' theory that Iraqis would only stand up properly once the US stood down as a reason for withdrawal. No-one (who matters to Spencer Ackerman, at least) in the United States may give a shit about Iraq anymore, but the Iraqis sure do. The Obama administration, for entirely selfish reasons, is trying to break a promise not just to Americans but to the Iraqi people.