Galbraith: US-Iraq Security Agreement Is ‘Stunning and Humiliating’ for Bush

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/11/26

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 26, 2008

Galbraith: US-Iraq Security Agreement Is ‘Stunning and Humiliating’ for Bush
Iraqi leaders motivated by pro-Shiite and pro-Iranian agendas says Galbraith


WASHINGTON - November 26 - Peter Galbraith, a top Iraq expert and former ambassador to Croatia, issued a statement today on the status of forces agreement recently signed by the United States and Iraq.

Galbraith serves as senior diplomatic fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. He is available for comment today (Wednesday, November 26) from Cambridge, MA.

“The agreement represents a stunning and humiliating reversal of course by the Bush administration, which had vehemently opposed any timetable for withdrawal from Iraq,” said Galbraith.

Iraqi and American negotiators have been working on the security agreement for over a year. The Iraqi parliament is expected to vote on the pact on Wednesday. To pass, the agreement needs to get 138 votes out of 275 Iraqi lawmakers and also must be ratified by the Iraqi presidential council.

“For the last two years, President Bush has pretended that Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki is a democrat and an American ally. In fact, Maliki is a sectarian Shiite politician who heads a government dominated by pro-Iranian religious parties,” remarked Galbraith. “The U.S. presence now no longer serves the interests of Iraq’s ruling Shiite religious parties or their Iranian allies, so we are now being asked to leave.”

The agreement mandates that “all U.S. combat forces” withdraw from urban areas in Iraq by June 30, 2009, and that “all U.S. forces” withdraw from the country by December 31, 2011. The agreement upholds Iraq’s “sovereign right” to demand the departure of U.S. forces anytime and recognizes the United States’ “sovereign right” to remove its forces earlier than the end of 2011.

For more information about the agreement, see the in depth analysis online.

The agreement also bars permanent American bases in Iraq, prohibits the United States from using Iraqi territory to launch attacks against other nations, and bars any residual U.S. forces in Iraq beyond the end of 2011.

Galbraith concluded: “While U.S. withdrawal is made easier by the fact that both the Iraqi government and the new U.S. administration want American troops out, the confluence of events leading to the agreement underscores the folly of President Bush’s lost Iraq war.”

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Founded in 1980, the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is a leading advocate for prudent measures to prevent the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Visit the Center online: www.armscontrolcenter.org

[BelgianMadCow]

1. hmmm - so the Status of forces agreement doesn't allow permanent basing

that is a major setback for the imperialistic neocon plans.

However, the oil opened up to outside companies are a form of basing right as well...:shrug: Wonder how those are going.

[jwirr]

4. Only until it runs out or becomes too hard to get out of the ground.

Then those foreign predators will get run out on a rail. I heard that our troops and other Americans over there will not have diplomatic immunity if they commit a crime. Iraq has written a tough treatie that protects their rights. "Mission Accomplished" :sarcasm:

[BelgianMadCow]

5. oops, not being above the law?!?

glad to hear this!

[indepat]

2. Now just what did this war, at a cost of possibly more than one million lives,

untold other casualties, millions of orphans, a largely destroyed infrastructure, and an ultimate cost in treasure in the trillions of dollars, accomplish. Oh, I forgot: the late Saddam was a bad guy and favored contractors racked in probably tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars. :P

[bemildred]

3. No shit?

And what exactly did we get out of this donnybrook? Nothing you say? A mountain of debt? The total absence of readiness for anything else that might come along?