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Unruly Puppets
‘The direction we are taking is to have a memorandum of understanding either for the departure of the forces or to have a timetable for their withdrawal,’ a statement from Maliki’s office quoted him as telling Arab ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates.
Iraq demands troop withdrawal timetable in U.S. defence pact talks
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"It is important to understand that these are not talks on a hard date for a withdrawal," [White House spokesman Scott Stanzel] said.
"As Ambassador (Ryan) Crocker has said, we are looking at conditions, and not calendars — and both sides are in agreement on this point," [he] said.
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Asked about Maliki’s comments, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters: "With respect to timetables I would say the same thing I would say as respects to the security situation — it is dependent on conditions on the ground."
White House says no ‘hard date’ for withdrawal in Iraq talks
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BAGHDAD – Iraq’s national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.
Iraq insists on withdrawal timetable
The big question now: What can and will Cheney do to again get things in Baghdad under control?
RT, this our “ally” to the Far West, in Republic of the Marshall Islands,
and a interesting foretaste of what Iraq and Afghanistan may soon become.
There US forces liberated the islands in 1944, took the best lands for a permanent US base, moved the natives onto an inhospitable sand spit as day laborers and pleasure girls, dropped the Bikini H-bombs, relocated the natives from one inhospitable sand spit to another, conducted one missile defense scam after the other through four presidents, culminating in the still inoperable Patriot Missile system (only slightly over a 50% kill ratio on prescripted, months planning, single target, big balloons to get refunded), then paying the interim provisional government and the royals (that actually own the lands) huge reparations settlement claims, which government officials and royals use to live in US, send their kids to Harvard and live like, well, your typical entitled royalty, while the Marshallese themselves live abject lives of wage-to-rent slavery, ten to a room, sleeping in shifts for floor space, while US defense contractors live it up on the main island, Little Club Fed, entirely income tax free.
You know, your typical American military slave colony, times, what, 5000?
Now those officials, royals and their lawyers want to renegotiate a COLA.
Will this then become the model for M.E.? US making compensation payments
to retain their ambassador palace and oil production rights agreements, with Iraqi officials and sheikhs living in Dubai off payments interest, while the average Iraqi, once entitled to health care and an education under Saddam, is lucky for a chance wage-to-rent job, one hot and a cot?
Is that the Bilderburg-NeoZi.Con New World Order (TM)?
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Former US Negotiator Slams Marshall Islands’ Leaders Stance on Kwajalein
AlbertShort
The former U.S. head negotiator for the Compact of Free Association between the U.S. and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), serving 2001 to 2003, jumped back into the political limelight today with an op-ed to the Washington Times about the small Pacific nation.
“The United States needs to understand recent political developments in the RMI, the viability of its base at Kwajalein and the future of our bilateral free-association relationship with RMI could well hang in the balance.”
“A new RMI leadership aligned with the landowner chiefs and their lawyers recently took office,” said Albert V. Short, who has recently been working in the Pacific region with the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“The new president and foreign minister have publicly repudiated the RMI base-rights agreement already ratified by Congress and the RMI parliament. In addition, they are supporting demands from the chiefs for increased payments, backed by open threats that the strategic facility could be turned over to China if it is the highest bidder,” said Short.
This is about more than “throwing additional taxpayer dollars at the Kwajalein Problem,” he said, denouncing an article by The Economist.
The article, published in the January 2008 edition, following the change in leadership after the Marshall Islands’ national election, said that America had reason to worry about its strategic interests in Kwajalein, over the renewal of the land lease for its missile base. “America may find it in its interests to show some flexibility. It might be much costlier to stand firm than to bend a little to the prevailing political winds.”
In his commentary to the Times on June 30, 2008, Short said that the U.S. sought to secure base rights long into the future if needed, during Compact re-negotiations, agreeing to increase payments as requested by the RMI, “coming as close as was reasonable to meeting landowner demands.”
“But American lawyers and lobbyists for the traditional chiefs of Kwajalein demanded still more,” said Short, referring to lease payments for the renewal of the Land Use Agreement (LUA) which must be signed by Kwajalein landowners.
Revealing his opinion of Marshallese traditional society, he said that “the United States should not become entangled in RMI land-use customs, an essentially feudal system in which the chiefs (along with their lawyers and lobbyists) get the largest share of land-use payments, while the actual landowning community, or, “commoners,” get only what trickles down.”
On an ominous note, Short predicted that the recent reductions in programs and personnel at Reagan Missile Range will be just the beginning, if “the RMI proves an unreliable treaty partner.”
Posted by: Luke Fedrin | Jul 8 2008 19:45 utc | 5
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