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Iraq will ask the US to keep troops in the country beyond an end-of-2011 pullout deadline, says the nominee to be the next US defence secretary.
Outgoing CIA director Leon Panetta said he had "every confidence that a request like that will be forthcoming".
Mr Panetta was speaking at a US Senate committee considering his nomination.
The US currently has about 47,000 troops in Iraq, none in a combat role. Under a 2008 deal, they are expected to leave by 31 December 2011.
"It's clear to me that Iraq is considering the possibility of making a request for some kind of [troop] presence to remain there [in Iraq]," Mr Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
He said that whether that happened depended on what Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki might ask for.
But if Baghdad did make such a request, he added, Washington should say yes.
Sounds like calculated grooming of the public to me.
I'm curious what Obama voters think about this nugget? If it comes to fruition, will you revolt?
Iraqi troops refuse to do bomb disposal. Thats one reason they want US troops. Obama calls our EOD guys advisors, how stupid is that? Almost as stupid as the slobamabots buying it.
It will be very interesting to see what happens. If Panetta is making these statements during a confirmation hearing where he is potentially subjected to harsh treatment, then i'd say there's a very high probability that we will in fact stay in Iraq past December 2011. He wouldn't bring unnecessary scrutiny to himself if there wasn't something in the pipeline. And if that's the case, I fully expect liberals and Obama supporters to go ape schit. Any other response would be the pinnacle of hypocrisy.
We are never leaving Iraq. There are too many sheep and too many rabid fans of the military industrial complex in this country.
The only stop on these imperial excesses is our Congress, which has effectively sold out completely, starting with the Bush regime and continuing on with Obama, who has done nothing to slow the Bush era excesses.
That would be your only response? After so much vitriol spewed over the Iraq war? I would expect more than an email coming from someone such as yourself....unless hypocrisy is the plan? You can do better than that burdell.
Iraqi troops refuse to do bomb disposal. Thats one reason they want US troops. Obama calls our EOD guys advisors, how stupid is that? Almost as stupid as the slobamabots buying it.
That's a new one. Actually sort of clever for once.
I'd probably just stick with "Slobama." The "bots" part seems kind of random.
If I were conservative I'd totally have fun with that, saying things like "Slobama's gonna end the war ...one of these days."
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