Rice Discusses Troop Withdrawal with Iraqis
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Baghdad earlier today. She went to Iraq to talk with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top officials about a U.S.-Iraq security deal that, among other things, deals with the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
“The negotiators have taken this very, very far,” she told reporters, “but there is no reason to believe that there is an agreement yet. “There are still issues concerning exactly how our forces operate,” Rice said. “The agreement rests on aspirational timelines.”
Main points of disagreement are, at this point, a timetable for the withdrawal, immunity for U.S. soldiers ‘and the handling of Iraqi prisoners.’
According to insiders the two sides completed a draft agreement that would extend ‘the legal basis for U.S. troops to remain in Iraq beyond the end of this year, while calling for them to move out of Iraqi cities as soon as June 30.’
Not only does the Iraq government want the U.S. troops to leave Iraqi cities in the summer of next year, it also wants the U.S. to agree to withdraw all troops by 2011.
The main point at stake here is the independence of Iraq; if the Iraqis truly want the U.S. to withdraw before 2012, the U.S. has to accept it. In the end, it is their country. Having said that the U.S. is right to pursue its own interests and to try to ensure that a withdrawal will not be premature. If it withdraws prematurely chaos may very well break out again, which will probably result in huge pressure on America to once again come in and safe the day.
