Thread: Treaty tensions mount as Iraq tells the US it wants all troo

Treaty tensions mount as Iraq tells the US it wants all troops back in barracks

The Times (UK)
June 9, 2008
Deborah Haynes in Baghdad



Several thousand demonstrators protested against the US in rallies across the country on Friday. The placard says: ’No agreement with US occupiers’


American troops in Iraq would be confined to their bases and private security guards subject to local law if Iraq gets its way in negotiations with the US over the future status of American forces.

According to a senior Iraqi official, the negotiations between the two allies became so fraught recently that President Bush intervened personally to defuse the situation. On Thursday he telephoned Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, to assure him that Washington was not seeking to undermine Iraq’s sovereignty and that America would reconsider any contentious part of the agreement.

The current United Nations mandate for US troops expires at the end of this year and Washington wants to conclude a bilateral agreement with Baghdad for the future deployment of US forces. There are just over 150,000 US troops in Iraq living on scores of bases across the country, from little 30-men outposts to sprawling camps often built around old Iraqi army barracks.

Construction work over the past five years has turned these bases into small towns of trailers, hangars and blast walls, equipped with a Pizza Hut, Starbucks-style coffee shops, cinemas and swimming pools.

Among a litany of sticking-points surrounding the status of forces agreement (SOFA) between the two countries are Iraqi concerns over how many US bases will remain in the country and who will be in control of Iraqi air space.

Other flashpoints include whether private security companies working for US forces will continue to enjoy immunity from Iraqi law and whether US soldiers will maintain the freedom to travel where they want, arrest people and conduct raids without first gaining approval from the Iraqi Government.

Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman, said that under the new deal US soldiers should be confined to the larger bases. “We do need the Americans to leave the cities and the streets,â€

After bleeding our country of thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars these animals want our soldiers to bow down ? I say F-them let them fend for themselves.

Bush will blow this big time . My bet is nothing will be done to get any of the 2/3 Trillion dollars back into "Our" treasury .
I remember Dubya saying when this all started . Iraq oil will pay for it all. Course we Americans are so out to lunch now , that a Trillion here or there means nothing to us . Jokes on us , the people . We can't even pay the interest on the War ! But the Bush Crime Family will come out smelling like roses .