Obama says combat troops gone yet Iraq occupation continues
2010Gerry Foley 2010-09Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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VOL. 28, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2010 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. / CANADA $1 U.S. Dept. of Defense /AP Obama’s much touted removal of U.S. “combat troops” from Iraq is pure word play. U.S. officials admit that 50,000 troops will remain, only now they are supposed to be “advisers” rather than fighters.
U.S. government spokespersons apparently hope that the American people have forgotten that the U.S. expeditionary force in Vietnam was initially called “advisers.” It stretches credulity to claim that 50,000 soldiers are only “advisers.” That is a considerable military force by anyone’s estimation in a country of less than 30 million.
It is true that this number is far less than the U.S. forces in Iraq at their height. But this draw down has only been made possible by a reaction of local Sunni Iraq chiefs against the sectarianism and ruthless of al-Qaeda. It remains a precarious gain.
An effective U.S. client regime has been far from stabilized. The present government could collapse or fall into the arms of Iran. The Sunni insurgency could regenerate as the anti-al-Qaeda groups become disillusioned with the lack of solutions for their problems offered by the Iraqi government and the U.S. What would the 50,000 U.S. troops do then?
The New York Times reported Aug. 22: “U.S. troops will stay in Iraq in an ‘advise-train-assist’ role until the end of next year, Army General Raymond Odierno said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ program. ... But they certainly have the ability to protect themselves and if necessary to conduct ... combat operations if it was required,” said Odierno, chief architect of the 2007 troop surge in Iraq.”
Moreover, it is not clear to what extent the mercenary forces used in combination with the regular U.S. mili(Photo) Some of the U.S. soldiers “returning” home: Coffins are unloaded in Dover, Del. Oil pollution persists in Gulf of Mexico See page 6.
Tony Savino / Socialist Action
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