Quote:
Originally posted by Jameson Teqkilla
I'm gonna need a source on this mess.
|
It was the SOFA agreement, which Bush signed in 2008, saying we'd be out before 2012. The Obama administration really wanted to bypass this and extend the troops' stay but needed Maliki's approval. Maliki declined.
Huffington:
Quote:
But in recent months, the U.S. has let it be known that it is willing to consider staying in significant numbers -- if the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki requests it.
In May, outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told an American think tank that he "hoped" the Iraqi government would ask the U.S. to keep troops there after the deadline.
"I hope they figure out a way to ask, and I think that the United States will be willing to say 'yes' when that time comes," Gates said.
More recently, current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, on his first official visit to Iraq in his new post, said that the U.S. would "seriously consider" an Iraqi request to keep American troops there. In a later, more candid meeting with a group of American soldiers, Panetta expressed his exasperation that the Iraqi government was taking so long to make the request: "Dammit, make a decision," he said.
|
Note that basically saying "we wouldn't be opposed to a request to stay" translates to we are trying to stay but fear retaliation.
Source:
Quote:
|
Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s office put out a statement today saying the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will be gone by the end of this year as specified in an agreement made with the Bush administration. “The agreement on the withdrawal of American forces will be implemented on schedule by the end of the year, and there will not be any bases for U.S. forces here,” he said in a television interview.
|
Which was basically a hell no to the extension.
Quote:
Originally posted by RatedG²
And what right wing website told you those lies?  |
Anyone who knows me knows I'm as liberal as they come, I'm not here for no FOX news ********. I just give credit where credit is due
