The Obamessiah announced that we are finally leaving Iraq after ten years of occupation. It seems awfully convenient that this happened so close to election season but as Ron Paul points out leaving now was only logical:
First and foremost, any form of withdrawal that is happening is not simply because the administration realized it was the right thing to do. This is not the fulfillment of a campaign promise, or because suddenly the training of their police and military is complete and Iraq is now safe and secure, but because of disagreements with the new government over a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The current agreement was set up by the previous administration to expire at the end of 2011. Apparently the Iraqis refused to allow continued immunity from prosecution for our forces for any crimes our soldiers might commit on Iraqi soil. Can you imagine having foreign soldiers here, with immunity from our laws and Constitution, with access to your neighborhood?
Basically we’re leaving because the Iraqis have decided to prosecute our troops for crimes they commit while in Iraq. Even with this fact considered though I don’t think we can really claim to be leaving Iraq:
Some 39,000 American troops will supposedly be headed home by the end of the year. However, the US embassy in Iraq, which is the largest and most expensive in the world, is not being abandoned. Upwards of 17,000 military personnel and private security contractors will remain in Iraq to guard diplomatic personnel, continue training Iraqi forces, maintain “situational awareness” and other functions. This is still a significant American footprint in the country. And considering that a private security contractor costs the US taxpayer about three times as much as a soldier, we’re not going to see any real cost savings. Sadly, these contractors are covered under diplomatic immunity, meaning the Iraqi people will not get the accountability that they were hoping for.
Our embassy there is the largest one in the world. Why we need such a massive complex for diplomatic ties is beyond me but it certainly makes one hell of a good military base if it can store 17,000 military personnel. It’s almost as if we wanted to leave a giant staging area in the country in case we needed to invade Iran a neighboring country.
While our “leaders” claim we’re leaving Iraq remember it’s still going to be a giant money sinkhole with plenty of American military personnel needing housing, food, and water.