Iraq’s puppet government to ruin Obama’s reputation of glorious peacemaker

Iraq wants the US troops out before June 30, 2009, as Barack Obama promised in his pre-election program. The government of the war-torn nation is concerned with Obama’s decision to prolong the presence of US troops in the country until the end of 2011.

Photo: Iraq’s puppet government to ruin Obama’s reputation of glorious peacemaker

Indeed, Obama promised that the United States would pull out its troops from Iraq during 2009. However, Obama changed his mind slightly after he took office and said that the pullout would be conducted some time later - in 2.5 years, to be more precise.

US defense officials say that it is technically impossible to execute Obama’s previous promises. It would be extremely difficult to evacuate up to 250,000 people and military hardware within only two months, they say.

It is true, of course. However, was there anything that stopped Barack Obama from executing his landmark promises immediately after taking office? The things that cannot be done within two months could be done very well during six months. Therefore, the reference to technical difficulties looks like a poor excuse.

Specialists calculated that the number of terrorist acts and attacks against the US servicemen in Iraq had decreased five times during the recent six months in comparison with the first half of 2008. That is why US defense officials decided to stay a bit longer in the country that comes second after Saudi Arabia in terms of crude reserves.

As for Afghanistan, the results of the year 2008 showed that neither the United States, not NATO can struggle against the Taliban and guerrilla groups in the country. Western forces have lost control over several regions in the south of Afghanistan last year.

A pullout from Iraq would be a catastrophe for the USA . The Shiite south of Iraq may join the Shiite Iran, which would let radical Sunni Islamists take power in their hands. If it happens, the whole region would be destabilized. The West receives almost two-thirds of its crude from the region, which means that the situation may lead to unpredictable consequences.

It is worthy of note that nearly all oil-rich countries of the Arabian Peninsula are monarchies. Islamic radicals have intensified their subversive activities there recently striving for the reign of true Islam in the Arab world.

What about Obama’s promises? It could be possible to simply cancel them, but it would obviously cause damage to the image of the president, the peacemaker. It would therefore be most convenient to delay the withdrawal of the troops and find plausible excuses for it.

However, even the puppet government of Iraq dreams to get rid of the US guardianship in spite of the fact that it will eventually lose power in the event the US troops would be no longer present in the country.

Sergey Balmasov