While the larger Iraqi Parliament has yet to vote, the agreement allowing U.S. forces to remain until 2011 appears to have passed the smaller Iraqi Cabinet. While not all the ministers were present, the measure does seem to have passed with a majority vote for now. Helping smooth the waters was the statement from a leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who said he would not object if the measure passed with a clear majority in the Parliament.
The new agreement means that U.S. forces will be able to stay past the December 31 deadline set by the U.N. mandate that we are currently operating under, but who knew we would be there so long after it was declared “Mission Accomplished.” The new pact includes changes that allow U.S. forces and even defense contractors to be tried for serious crimes, which means Blackwater got their silencers and rifles just in time (See http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6254508&page=1 ).
Muqtada al-Sadr said he would be against any agreement that did not mean that all “occupying forces” were to leave immediately, and while al-Sadr is an idiot, unfortunately, he is a popular idiot. Hopefully in the months since his forces declared a cease-fire on American forces, they have come to realize what a pinhead he is. If al-Sadr thinks that over 140,00 troops can simply vanish overnight, then he is as stupid as he looks, I mean we are talking Forrest Gump with a lobotomy level of stupidity with this one. That is just my opinion, in that I hate him, and think he is a shill for Iran.
But back to the new agreement, it also bans using Iraq as a base to attack neighboring countries, like our little outing in Syria recently, which to this day still makes no sense to me. I mean, why risk 4 choppers and their crews for a hit job? Did we run out of missiles? That whole mission seemed squirrely, and the fact that we killed and/or captured some al-Qaeda jerk is great, but the level of risk in that operation was just bewildering.
As for Iraq, the roadside bombs continue, the sectarian violence is still occurring, but the reality is, no matter how long we stayed, those factions would continue to fight. I never thought the current administration would ever admit to that, but in agreeing to withdraw, it seems they have. Or maybe the current administration already cut enough oil deals to keep their friends happy for quite a while, so it was time to leave. Either way, our forces will start to come home. Well, more of our attention will go to Afghanistan, but a fair amount of our forces should be allowed to return.
And the fun part will be when the Rush Limbaugh types start blaming the Democrats for it all, if they haven’t started that already. We should have no illusions that Iraq has a staggering number of problems that must be dealt with, but unlike so many that thought the invasion was a great idea, many of us realized just what a tiger by the tail we had caught when it was decided we should invade, for reasons that changed more than just a few times.
And for those of you who still argue that the situation was different, you would be right, in that after the first Gulf War, Saddam may have still had some viable WMD’s.
