USA troops will stay in Iraq forever?

The US administration does not know what to do with American soldiers in Iraq.
US Department of State seems not to have a clear idea of the developments in Iraq after June 30 – the date when the authority in Iraq is to be handed to the national government. Washington has no definite answer how long the US troops will be deployed in Iraq.

Earlier the USA planned to start reducing the number of its troops in Iraq this May. However, Americans had to increase the number of their soldiers instead. Increasing US military power in Iraq may become a trend as US troops clashes with Iraqi combatants continue. This is happening despite the fact that one of Shiite leaders Muqtada al-Sadr made a statement that he had decided to stop fighting, establish a political party from his al-Mahdi Army and run in the future Iraqi elections. But even if as-Sadr calls his supporters to stop fighting, not all of them can comply. Iraqis are indignant with the recent information on torturing prisoners.

Meanwhile, US Pesident’s political advisor Marc Grossman made a statement that Washington would be ready to withdraw the troops from Iraq if the country’s new government requests this. However, they “corrected” his statement soon. Spokesman for US Department of state Richard Baucher said, “The administration believes that the new Iraqi authorities will not request withdrawal of the troops”. According to Mr. Baucher, Iraqi counterparts “are hoping that we elaborate the conditions of security for Iraq which will include multinational troops to continue to be deployed in Iraq”.

Mr. Baucher said that these conditions include increasing role of Iraqis in providing security for their country which will allow to “gradually withdraw the multinational forces when Iraqis will be able to accept this responsibility”.

In fact, the spokesman confirmed one more time that the US troops will remain in Iraq long. It is hard to say how long. Today 2006 is named as the year of possible troops withdrawal, but then the new date may be called as there has been named no criteria for estimation of Iraqis’ ability to provide security of their country. Using Afghanistan as an example, where establishing national Army and police has not been completed for several years, one can understand that in Iraq this process will last long as well…