Sunday, January 05, 2020

Iraq's Parliament votes all US troops out of Iraq

Joanna Tan reports "Trump threatens to slap sanctions on Iraq 'like they've never seen before'" (CNBC):


President Donald Trump threatened Sunday to slap sanctions on Iraq after its parliament passed a resolution calling for the government to expel foreign troops from the country.
Tensions in the Middle East spiraled last week after Trump called for a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, the U.S. president said: “If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”
“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build. Long before my time. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” Trump said.
The president added that “If there’s any hostility, that they do anything we think is inappropriate, we are going to put sanctions on Iraq, very big sanctions on Iraq.”


Does that make you sad?

Makes me happy.  I'd love to see Iraq order all US troops out.  And that might, in fact, end the war.  Would it cure Iraq's problems?  Not immediately.  But it would let the Iraqi people take on their corrupt and lethargic government with no interference from outsiders -- including the outsiders (US government) that put it in place.

Let's hope they demand all US troops out.   Per Stephen Sorace (FOX NEWS), this is what the Iraqi Parliament voted in favor of:

The resolution asks the Iraqi government to end the agreement under which Washington sent forces to Iraq more than four years ago to help in the fight against the Islamic State terror group.
"The Iraqi government has an obligation to end the presence of all foreign forces on Iraqi soil and prevent it from using Iraqi lands, waters, and airspace or any other reason," Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halboosi said in an address to lawmakers before the vote.



 Erin Cunningham (WASHINGTON POST via TORONOTE STAR) adds:

In an address to parliament, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi recommended that the government establish a timetable for the exit of foreign troops, including the members of the U.S.-led coalition to fight the Islamic State, “for the sake of our national sovereignty.”
“What happened was a political assassination,” Abdul Mahdi said of the U.S. strike that targeted Iran’s elite Quds Force commander, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, as he travelled in a convoy near the Baghdad airport.
He said that foreign troops were in Iraq to train its forces and help target remnants of the Islamic State “under the supervision and approval of the Iraqi government.”

US forces should leave.  And it's likely that in the aftermath of the departure, Adel Abdul Mahdi will finally be pushed out of office -- as he should be.  And as he promised to be, remember?  He resigned.  He's corrupt and ineffective and the only thing that's keep his lazy and corrupt ass in place has been the US government.

Even now, he's a joke.  Qasem Soleimani is not his issue.  The US attack on Iraqi forces last Sunday is the issue.  That attack left at least 25 Iraqi troops dead.  Somehow Mahdi ignores and forgets that but then he's always forgotten the Iraqi people which is why the protesters demanded he stepped down in the first place.

Over at THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, Ben Connable frets, "Without firing a shot, Iran appears to have executed a devastating revenge attack against the United States for the killing of Gen. Qassem Suleimani. Using Iraq’s democratic process, Iranian-influenced members of parliament on Sunday voted to expel American soldiers from Iraq. With that, Iran may have effectively won the battle of influence in Iraq."

Lies.  Lies they tell you to prolong war.

Iraq doesn't want to be controlled by Iran.  It's had a war over that.  Since the 2003 US-led invasion, they've regularly fault over their shared border with both claiming the other was attempting to steal territory, they've regularly fought over who has water rights, it's been one fight after another.  Iran is not going to overrun Iraq.  The government of Iran might like to, but it's not going to happen.

Each year, there are more lies told to continue the US occupation of Iraq. 

Will there be violence if US troops leave Iraq?  Probably so.  Very likely.  But the alternative is US troops never leave Iraq.  Let the Iraqi people determine their own future and path.


The following sites updated:


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.












  If they change it by the time you're reading this, hover over link and you'll see "iraq" in the url.  In fact, here it is:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/06/trump-threatens-to-slap-sanctions-on-iraq-like-theyve-never-seen-before.html



See, you didn't even have to hover.  Now when you read Tan's report, you quickly grasp that it's Iran, not Iraq, that Donald's threatening:
















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