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October 3, 2011
Maliki: Zero Foreign Soldiers In Iraq

There were several U.S. attempts to keep its troops in Iraq. The U.S. offer was lowered from 30,000 to 10,000 to 3,000 to trainers. This seems to settle it and the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq looks to be about zero.

Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has said on Thursday that the presence of foreign experts and trainers during the purchase of weapons is a natural thing, reiterating that the presence of the US troops in his country would end by end of the current year

“The presence of the American troops is settled and shall end by the end of the current year, according to an agreement between both sides, and there won’t remain a single foreign soldier in the country,” a statement by the Prime Minister’s office reported.

But Prime Minister Maliki said that the “presence of foreign experts and trainers during the process of purchase of weapons is something natural and is followed in other parts of the world.”

Those few trainers, mostly civilians anyway, that will be needed for the F-16s and other stuff Iraq buys will not be relevant. They can not influence Iraqi operations nor will they be able to influence anything with regards to Iran.

This outcome is the best for all involved.

Posted by b on October 3, 2011 at 17:53 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Oil contracts are key and not forthcoming

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Oct 3 2011 18:43 utc | 1

So a few hundred jarheads to guard the embassy. How many thousands of mercs will be in the State Departments private army? The Iraqis still will have a ways to go to rid themselves of the US cancer.

Posted by: ran | Oct 3 2011 19:35 utc | 2

I’m glad you’ve come around to my point of view. The future US presence in Iraq looks like being 3-5000 “trainers”, or as others say, “hostages”.
The US had a chance to work on forcing Iraq to conform, but they were diverted by the Palestinian question at the UN. In any case, I think this is what Obama wants, without saying so, in order to avoid offending the Pentagon.
Iraq will be much better off without Americans. They have to settle their own future.
By the way, the F16s will be useless, because their electronics will have been modified to recognise Israeli and US planes as friends, and refuse to fire on them. Not important. Iraq is not going to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran.

Posted by: alexno | Oct 3 2011 19:45 utc | 3

How many thousands of mercs will be in the State Departments private army?

I think Iraq has already forbidden foreign “security personnel”. If not, it will be soon.

Posted by: alexno | Oct 3 2011 19:59 utc | 4

so Iraq is to buy 16 fighters from the US for 3 billion dollars. works out to over 166 million per plane. that is awfully high. maybe the 3 billion is for 32 jets. that is more in line with what others are paying.
still, a country that has had its infrastructure systematically destroyed is muscled into laying out all this money for airplanes that are absolutely useless to them. nothing like kicking a guy when he is already down.

Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 3 2011 20:01 utc | 5

I was speculating about the process of withdrawal, as so many of our commenters have said that the US will not withdraw, because of the investment that the US has made in building permanent bases.
Well, they will be happy to know that the expensive embassy in Baghdad will be maintained.
The withdrawal process is long, and it has already started. Camp Victory, at the Baghdad airport, is already reported as closed. I haven’t heard of other closures.
I’ve been asking myself about the long convoys exiting Iraq, in November and December. A friend of mine is doing an archaeological dig in northern Kuwait at that time. I think he may have difficulty with the roads full.
Even without that, I hear that there’s a new conflict between Iraq and Kuwait, over the construction of a new port in the north of Kuwait. Rockets have been fired.
We’ll have to see what happens, but it sounds as though everybody is going to have an adventurous time.

Posted by: alexno | Oct 3 2011 20:28 utc | 6

so when do we see a real revolution : an armed uprising? And when will NATO come to the aid of the protestors?

Posted by: brian | Oct 3 2011 20:45 utc | 7

The amount of troops/contractors left in Iraq, IMO, will be determined by the distribution of the oil contracts and NOTHING else. We (USA) don’t build an embassy the size of the Vatican, just to leave Iraqi policies to chance.

Posted by: ben | Oct 4 2011 15:58 utc | 8

Iraq Denies Legal Immunity to U.S. Troops After 2011

Iraq’s political leaders announced late Tuesday that they had agreed on the need to keep American military trainers in Iraq next year, but they declared that any remaining troops should not be granted immunity from Iraqi law, a point the United States has said would be a deal breaker.
…

Posted by: b | Oct 5 2011 4:39 utc | 9

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