Trivial Matters

So Iraq is halfway to agreeing to kick out US troops by the end of 2011, with a large exodus to start next Summer. It will be interesting to see if we can abide by that. Of course, President-Elect Obama had campaigned on withdrawing from Iraq and focusing on Afghanastan, which is what I think prompted the Iraqi Cabinet to make the motion for withdraw now.

They don’t have to listen to Bush, lame duck that he is, and Obama doesn’t have the power to go back on his statements quite yet. By the time Obama is in office and calling the shots, Iraq will have the “Mission Accomplished” banner prepped to hang at Baghdad International Airport as soldiers, marines, and airmen board their chartered flights home.

The problem with this is that Iraq is now a “friend” of the U.S. And we like to maintain bases in countries that are our “friends” because they are usually within earshot of countries that are less than friendly. So the question is not whether we will leave Iraq, but how many other countries where we currently have SOFAs (status of forces agreements) will we be withdrawing from in the next four years.

Will America retreat to it’s own borders and start to deal with it’s own problems before taking up it’s role as international beat-cop yet again. Or will we bully our way into staying in Iraq, and give the international community another reason to lothe us.

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