US Troops to Leave Iraq by End of Year

[Jer]

From what i've heard is that the Iraqi government told us to gtfo and Obama is taking credit for it lol? Not sure how true that is.

It came down to the Iraqi government not wanting to give U.S. troops the equivalent of diplomatic immunity, which was a deal-breaker for the U.S.

[Celeste]

Look, we're the United States of America. We could get away with occupying France if we wanted to. It would damage our already shitty international face, but who cares? We could stay in Iraq too, as long as we wanted. We could make it apart of the USA if we wanted and if they wanted, although I'm not sure why we would want that camel infested hellhole, but I'm sure you get what I'm saying.

The power we have at our disposal is retarded.

[notorious bum]

Iraq wants us to leave? When did we start listening to sand dwellers?

[Celeste]

Iraq wants us to leave? When did we start listening to sand dwellers?

Exactly.

[Xno Kappa]

It was actually Iraq pushing for U.S. troops to stay.

U.S. wanted immunity for their soldiers under a new SOFA if soldiers were to stay past the already established withdrawal date of Dec 2011, Maliki and his party were willing to go through with it but Al Sadr and his bloc made a big stink about it so negotiations broke down and fell apart. U.S. basically said lolno and decided to chuck dem deuces.

[Kuya]

It was actually Iraq pushing for U.S. troops to stay.

U.S. wanted immunity for their soldiers under a new SOFA if soldiers were to stay past the already established withdrawal date of Dec 2011, Maliki and his party were willing to go through with it but Al Sadr and his bloc made a big stink about it so negotiations broke down and fell apart. U.S. basically said lolno and decided to chuck dem deuces.

But what about the extensive negotiations the administration has been engaged in for months, regarding U.S. offers to leave thousands of uniformed soldiers in Iraq past the deadline? It has been well reported that those negotiations, led by U.S. Ambassador James Jeffrey, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and White House official Brett McGurk, had been stalled over the U.S. demand that the remaining troops receive immunity from Iraqi courts.

For more evidence that the administration actually wanted to extend the troop presence in Iraq, despite today's words by Obama and McDonough, one only has to look at the statements of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

In July, Panetta urged Iraqi leaders to, "Dammit, make a decision" about the U.S. troop extension. In August, he told reporters that, "My view is that they finally did say, ‘Yes.'" On Oct. 17, he was still pushing for the extension and said, "At the present time I'm not discouraged because we're still in negotiations with the Iraqis."

"The actions don't match the words here," said Sullivan. "It's in the administration's interest to make this look not like they failed to reach an agreement and that they fulfilled a campaign promise. But it was very clear that Panetta and [former Defense Secretary Robert] Gates wanted an agreement."

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/po...l_negotiations