Deadline after deadline after meaningless withdrawal deadline passes
Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
April 8, 2011
The world’s media reacted with a collective shrug of the shoulders today as Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted that US troops are likely to stay in Iraq beyond 2011, making another scheduled withdrawal date nothing more than an empty meaningless promise.
There will be no withdrawal, because a permanent military occupation was agreed long ago.
The date for the final pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq keeps being pushed back further and further. Obama campaigned in 2008 on the promise that he would “immediately” withdraw troops from Iraq, then that was put back to June 2009, then it became August 2010, and now the date has been pushed back to the end of 2011. Every time a deadline gets close, the Obama administration simply insists that the situation is too unstable for withdrawal and the date is pushed back again.
Nevertheless, last August, with much sickening fanfare, the corporate media announced the “official” end to the occupation of Iraq.
“The last American combat troops left Iraq today, seven-and-a-half years after the US-led invasion, and two weeks ahead of President Barack Obama’s 31 August deadline for withdrawal from the country,” the London Guardian reported on August 19.
Buried in the recesses of such coverage was the fact that over 50,000 troops would remain behind to make up a “transition force”.
Even that number was misleading, however, given that the US still has over 100,00 contractors in Iraq.
In reality there is no plan to withdraw the military from Iraq, far from it, the plan is to stay there… forever.
In 2008 details of that agenda leaked to the media. It was revealed that the globalist neocon cabal in control of the government was actively seeking permanent occupation of the country, along with the construction of over 50 permanent bases and the right to launch pre-emptive military strikes on any country from inside Iraq.
The London Independent reported:
The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq’s position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country. [...]
Under the terms of the new treaty, the Americans would retain the long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq. American negotiators are also demanding immunity from Iraqi law for US troops and contractors, and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government.
Further details of the plot then emerged from senior Iraqi military sources who detailed the wish on behalf of the White House to control Iraqi airspace below 29,000ft and secure the right to launch military campaigns against other countries from inside Iraq:
The military source added, “According to this agreement, the American forces will keep permanent military bases on Iraqi territory, and these will include Al Asad Military base in the Baghdadi area close to the Syrian border, Balad military base in northern Baghdad close to Iran, Habbaniyah base close to the town of Fallujah and the Ali Bin Abi Talib military base in the southern province of Nasiriyah close to the Iranian border.”
The military and both the Bush and Obama administrations have consistently denied any plans for permanent bases in Iraq, yet the Pentagon continues to spend billions on the construction of permanent bases. Of course, they are not referred to as “permanent”, rather they are “enduring” bases.
The push to permanently occupy Iraq did not subside with the election of Obama, who sent a special envoy last September to meet with senior Iraqi military and civilian officials to carve out a secret deal to keep troops in Iraq beyond 2011.
The U.S. has around 1,000 bases and military installations in 156 countries scattered around the world. The Pentagon does not plan to “drawdown” its presence in these countries anytime soon. In fact, it is continually looking for excuses to expand its presence, as we have seen with the recent incursion into Libya.
Obama’s two-faced con in announcing that there will be a full withdrawal from Iraq while in reality tens of thousands of troops and contractors will remain as an occupying force for years if not decades strikes at the root of Obama’s hypocrisy and the fact that, while posturing as a peace advocate, he is firmly in the pocket of the military-industrial complex.
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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.