In his farewell tour of greater Mesopotamia, the Defense Secretary remarked that the US and Iraq would have to negotiate the terms of any American presence, while admitting that he had dreamed up at least a couple scenarios that might keep American forces in Iraq, perhaps indefinitely.
I admire the patience and perseverance of the Iraqi people, but I must wonder how long until they join their fellow Arabs in Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia to say “Kifaya!”
Today, speaking from a podium outside a compound that once was once home to his father, the grand ayatollah who had sacrificed his life defying Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship, Muqtada al-Sadr addressed thousands of loyal followers for the first time since he left Iraq in exile in 2007.
By this time next year, the United States should have withdrawn all of its troops from Iraq. We can hope that this long, bloody chapter in American military history may be at an end.
In June 2010, the Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 367 senior executives, all of who had direct input into their company’s decision-making regarding business in the Middle East, about their perceptions of investment in Iraq. All major industries are represented, with energy, manufacturing and financial services having the strongest representation. The ensuing report, titled Iraq Through Investors’ Eyes, details the refined perspective of investors who are already operating in Iraq and the perceptions of others that are either weighing their options or have decided not to invest for the time being.
More than 50 people were killed and some 115 wounded when a suicide bomber struck a Baghdad recruiting center for the Iraqi Army.
We’ve hit an emotional milestone in Iraq. The end is in sight. Major combat is over and the troops are coming home. And we can expect many more of these talks, with appearances planned throughout the month by the president, Vice President Biden and other senior administration officials as they wax eloquent on Obama’s steadfast commitment to ending the war.
President Obama has given formal assurances that U.S. forces in Iraq will drop to 50,000 by the end of the month – a reduction of 94,000 troops since he took office 18 months ago. The remaining troops will form a transitional force until a final U.S. withdrawal from the country by the end of 2011. […]
Nearly five months after national elections were held, Iraq is still without a government. Now, they may be without a football team.
Deadlocked efforts to resolve Iraq’s governing crisis nearly four months after parliamentary elections failed to produce decisive results, are at the heart of this current wave of political violence.