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U.S. To Stay In Iraq Forever
What? Permanent U.S. bases in Iraq? I've never heard of anything so absurd! Why, you -- you -- you conspiracy theorist! How can you be so shrill, so irresponsible, so, so, so...
Iraq's government is prepared to offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq and preferential treatment for American investments in return for an American guarantee of long-term security including defense against internal coups, The Associated Press learned Monday.The proposal, described to the AP by two senior officials familiar with the issue, is one of the first indications that the United States and Iraq are beginning to explore what their relationship might look like, once the U.S. significantly draws down its troop presence.
Make no mistake: this is Nouri al-Maliki offering the U.S. a permanent presence in return for guaranteeing the security of his government. (Would-be PM Ayad Allawi can't make President Bush a counteroffer as good as that.) In exchange for a platform for the indefinite projection of American power throughout the Middle East, the Bush Administration probably considers protection for Maliki and his coterie to be a small price to pay. No wonder the negotiation of a mandate for foreign troops in Iraq at the United Nations -- where this deal would begin to take shape -- is one of Bush's new post-benchmark benchmarks.
Who could have seen this coming?
Comments (12)
Crust wrote on November 26, 2007 10:49 AM:Spencer, your intro para is just brilliant.
RobbyLove wrote on November 26, 2007 11:13 AM:South Korea? Japan? Germany? Any of these places sound familiar?
The only time we haven't maintained a permanent presence is when we turned tail in Vietnam. Make no bones about it. Unless this or some other insurgency manages to uproot us, we'll be there for decades to come.
An Outhouse wrote on November 26, 2007 11:59 AM:Can we nickname al-Maliki Saddam? Just like old times!
will o dwisp wrote on November 26, 2007 12:13 PM:so - everything predicted about Iraq from the left and denied on the right- quagmire, no WMDs, no 9/11 connection, planned perpetual US presence, etc. have come true -don't you hate it when you know your adversary so well that you can see what he's got planned, but you can't do anything to stop him?
Goldspinner wrote on November 26, 2007 12:19 PM:After all, the new American Embassy in Iraq IS the size of a small military base. Damn "Kissinger Plan"!
Lantern wrote on November 26, 2007 1:02 PM:“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” from Alan Greenspan's recent book. Just keep repeating it whenever the Administration pulls another deception on the American people.
danger wrote on November 26, 2007 1:31 PM:At this point I'm pretty much for the complete defunding of the military industrial complex. I figured the Iraq invasion would be a terrible mistake, but the beast that this administration has created in bankrupting this country in order to finance an endless conflict for the war pigs to profit off of will turn out to be the worst thing to happen to this world since WWII.
Hopefully, the next president who comes to power will actually have a sense of leadership and do drastic things: end the war, pursue and engage in nuclear disarmament, and seizing of all assets from no-bid contracts. I imagine we would also have to pay staggering reparations.
We trulyare heading into the abyss here. No, actually, is it a black hole?
Dr WU-the last of the big time thinkers wrote on November 26, 2007 2:13 PM:For the 100th time-- George Bush makes his own reality. We're in Iraq, we're staying, screw the Sunnis and Shiites. We leave when the oil runs dry.
Rudy, Hillary, Mitt, Obama etc. have already signed onto the plan.
Anonymous wrote on November 26, 2007 3:42 PM:Gotta protect that oil, folks.
Drone wrote on November 27, 2007 8:52 AM:Whaddya expect?
Is anybody shocked, shocked?
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem there's any way out of this one. You can't vote a private corporate elite out of their fortune, even if its been made illegally.
Iran anyone?
Welcome to 1984!
Enlightened One wrote on December 18, 2007 3:15 AM:We should have seen this coming. The thing is that nobody cares about who is dying in the Middle East and nobody cares about how poorly we are all being exploited around the world. Great Depression II hasn't hit yet, that's why. As long as we can eat, sleep and shit, who cares about how many brown people we bomb?
The rich are transferring the wealth of the world into their pockets at an alarming rate. This is all just a pretext for the wars of the future. When the rich and powerful have made all of us poor and weak, they will seize upon the opportunity and launch us into global military conflict with Russia, China or India. Or maybe all of the above.
If you aren't in the top 1% of the world elite, you're out.
But first things first boys, let's get that oil!!!!!
average joe wrote on January 15, 2008 4:31 PM:Enlightened One pretty much hit the nail on the head. I've got several republican friends, and after no WMDs, no 9/11 connections, and more violent deaths in the last seven years in Iraq than the preceeding seven years, they finally said they don't particularly care about the issue. To them, it boiled down to "us vs them."
As long as we have tards like this in the country, we're f***ed.