Tuesday, February 24, 2009

US troops out of Iraq by August 2010...

In AP, here
The officials said they expect Obama to make the announcement this week. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Many issues separate the U.S. and Iran (such as the historically insulting treatment of Iran by Washington), but it is hard to think of a better door-opener than a firm public U.S. decision to pull out of Iraq.

However, if I were an Iranian national security expert, I would view the U.S. bases in Iraq more seriously than the troops, which are closer to being Iranian hostages than a threat.

The media may call removing U.S. troops a U.S. departure from Iraq, but as long as military bases remain there under U.S. control, American offensive power remains in the region, and Iranians will feel threatened and challenged.

The small print in any forthcoming Obama statement will be critically important in terms of setting the political context for any future effort to gain Iranian support to resolve both the Israeli-Palestinian and the Afghan-Pakistan problems.