Ellington

The Independent in London is reporting:

Iraq and the United States have finally agreed on a security pact which would mean that US forces would withdraw from Iraq by 2011, American and Iraqi officials said yesterday. The accord became a major test of strength between the Iraqi government and Washington since negotiations began in March with the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, pictured below, demanding US concessions on the date of the troop withdrawal and immunity for US troops. The pact replaces the UN Security Council resolution enacted after the American invasion of 2003.

The agreement still needs to be approved by the council of Iraqi leaders, the cabinet and the Iraqi parliament. Mr Maliki saw the highly influential Shia religious leader, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, last week and was assured that he would not stand in the way of the pact if approved by parliament. [...]

The US administration will present the pact as a sign of its success in Iraq but in fact the accord is very different from originally envisaged by Washington which would largely have continued the occupation as before. [...]

Iraqi politicians have always assumed that Washington's insistence on signing a new accord before the presidential election was motivated by the White House's hope that the accord would be seen as a sign that its Iraq policy had at last produced a success. The Republican contender, Senator John McCain, started off his campaign by saying that US troops might stay for 100 years and there should be no date for their withdrawal. The Democratic candidate, Senator Barack Obama, wants combat troops home by the middle of 2010, which was also the date originally proposed by Mr Maliki.

Iraq has faded as an issue in the presidential election as the financial crisis worsened. However, claims that the Republicans had won a victory in Iraq looked increasingly unreal as it became clear that a withdrawal date would be determined by Mr Maliki, and not by the US.

Previous Comments

ID

139231

Comment

Wow. 2011 sounds a lot better than 2108.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2008-10-16T12:47:21-06:00

ID

139257

Comment

Wow again. Some old men told me they believe the Lord has sent Obama and therefore they expect him to overcome whatever is put before him. Like me, or perhaps moreso than me, they can't bring themselves to beleive that enough white folks have been cured of racism or other pathology to allow Obama to win the election or for his plans or policies to make sense to them and get executed or carried out. Now, as this is being considered, and he's the front runner, assuming the polls can be believed, I wonder whether this is the case.

Author

Walt

Date

2008-10-16T14:25:56-06:00