President Barack Obama has given his approval to a Pentagon plan to station U.S. combat troops in Iraq beyond 2011, provided that Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki officially requests it, according to U.S. and Iraqi sources.
But both U.S. and Iraqi officials acknowledge that Maliki may now be reluctant to make the official request. Maliki faces severe political constraints at home, and his government is being forced by recent moves by Saudi Arabia to move even closer to Iran.
And it is no longer taken for granted by U.S. or Iraqi officials that Malhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifiki can survive the rising tide of opposition through the summer.
As early as September 2010, the White House informed the Iraqi government that it was willing to consider keeping between 15,000 and 20,000 troops in Iraq, in addition to thousands of unacknowledged Special Operations Forces. But Obama insisted that it could only happen if Maliki requested it, according to a senior Iraqi intelligence official.
And the White House, which was worried about losing support from the Democratic Party’s anti-war base as Congressional mid-term elections approached, insisted that the acknowledged troops would have to be put at least ostensibly under a State Department-run security force.
That's the opening of Gareth Porter's "Maliki’s Doubts Threaten Post-2011 Troop Presence Plan" (Dissident Voice). The war doesn't appear to be ending. Does it matter?
It does to people. It doesn't to self-appointed 'leaders' of the left who've gladly walked away from Iraq. Grasp for just one minute that 5 US soldiers have been announced dead in Iraq since Sunday. And not one death, not one, got mentioned by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! -- not even in headlines. How Amy did grandstand on the illegal war. How she did make it all about her, the one and only truth teller. Who would never walk away from the issue. She walked away. Same as she used her show to whore for Barack. Remember her cute little trick? Bring on a Hillary supporter and a John Edwards supporter and a Barack supporter? Ask the first two how they can support a candidate who supported the war and then never ask that of the Barack supporter. Even though he had more war votes than John Edwards. (Edwards was out of the Senate when the new crop was sworn in January 200.) Now Barack voted for every authorization, refused to stop the war, stated that the US was in Iraq now and on and on. But Amy never had a question for the Barack supporter about the war. It was much more important that she pimp the lie that he was antiwar.
And that lie has become the most damaging lie of all. It's allowed the Iraq War to continue, it's allowed Barack to pick up a Nobel Peace Prize for, apparently, managing to get most of his urine inside the toilet tank, it's allowed him to start the drone war on Pakistan. And of course the Libyan War. It's allowed him to keep Guantanamo open.
The entire "Brand Obama" is a lie. Until people start facing that, they'll continue to be tricked even though, at this point, you're they're self-deceiving. In 2008, yes, they were tricked by 'leaders' who abused their trust. That was years ago. At this point, people are responsible for themselves. Barack's no longer an unknown. Look at Matt Damon who's finally come around to reality.
With George W. Bush, when people stopped kidding themselves, he lost his power. When people stop pretending the emperor has clothes on, they have the power.
And when he loses his power to deceive, the world gets a whole lot safer because he has to work even harder to sell another war or to keep the current ones going.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
Last week, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4444. Tonight it is [PDF format warning] 4449.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
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