Jim's NowPublic Postings: Iraqi leaders consider troop deal with U.S.

(CNN) -- Iraqi leaders met Tuesday to review a draft of an agreement on the future of U.S. troops in Iraq, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met with officials Tuesday to discuss the draft agreement.

A senior Bush administration official said the text calls for U.S. troops to leave Iraqi cities, cease street patrols and return to their bases by June, unless Iraqis request their support.

Bush said we'd be welcomed as liberators and that we'd be doing the world a great service for democracy and freedom from terrorism. As we all know now, that was a crock some members of congress bought hook line and sinker. What's worse is that a great number of Americans believed it too.

By using fear and intimidation, as well as manipulation of the facts, the Bush spin doctors were able to pray on fear to generate support for the war and encourage their sons and daughters to go fight and die for a cause that wasn't really a cause at all but rather a vendeta Bush had against Saddam over a plan to kill his father and Laura Bush.

According to friends of mine who have been to Iraq, we have built over 17 permanent bases to the tune of several billion dollars. McCain is right on one thing, and that is that if he wins, we will be in Iraq for 100 years or more.

We don't put in multi-million dollar bases just for practice, we do it because we intend to "occupy" a country from now till doomsday.

The agreement also calls for U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, the senior official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

The official said that the Iraqis could ask U.S. troops to stay beyond 2011 depending on conditions on the ground but that the Iraqis would have "sole discretion" as to whether troops remain.

Al-Maliki met Tuesday with President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents to review the "semi-final draft" of the agreement, al-Maliki adviser Yassin Majid said.

But the U.S. official said that the draft was final and that negotiations on the Status of Forces Agreement had finished.

"But that doesn't mean we have a deal until the Iraqis agree," the official said. "We may have a text, but do we really have an agreement? We don't until the Iraqis sign off."

With the United Nations mandate authorizing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq expiring December 31, U.S. officials are examining "contingencies" in case the Iraqi government is unable to sell the deal to the country's various factions, the U.S. official said.

This next part really chaps my Democratic buttockal area. We go over there, whether on false pretenses (WMD's) or not, and we let over 4000 of our soldiers die to defend Iraq's people and bring democracy to the region, like they really want that, and we're supposed to put up with our soldiers being susceptable to criminal charges because we did something that violates Iraqi law? They said they reached an agreement on that part, but would not disclose the details. First off, our soldiers should be made aware of those details so they know what they may be facing, and second, if the details don't read something like this, "Try or convict any of our forces and we'll knock your whole country down to beaded glass", there should be NO agreement.

One issue that had held up negotiations was whether U.S. troops will remain immune from Iraqi law. The U.S. official said negotiators had "reached a compromise" on the issue, but details of the immunity compromise weren't available.

Baghdad has sought the authority to arrest and try Americans accused of crimes unrelated to official military operations. It also wants jurisdiction over troops and contractors who commit grave mistakes in the course of their duties.

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Iraqi leaders consider troop deal with U.S.

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