Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup metatuning Iraq is now the 51st state (i told you so)

--- In metatuning@yahoogroups.com, "monz" <joemonz@...> wrote:
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071126/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_us
>
> Read it while it's still available ... Yahoo has already
> dropped it from its news headline page, and it wasn't there
> for very long at all.

In case it disappears, here i quote it to keep it in
the archives:

------------

2007.11.26

Iraqis may offer US deal to stay longer

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 18 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Iraq's government, seeking protection against foreign
threats and internal coups, will offer the U.S. a long-term troop
presence in Iraq in return for U.S. security guarantees as part of a
strategic partnership, two Iraqi officials said Monday.
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The proposal, described to The Associated Press by two senior Iraqi
officials familiar with the issue, is one of the first indications
that the United States and Iraq are beginning to explore what their
relationship might look like once the U.S. significantly draws down
its troop presence.

In Washington, President Bush's adviser on the Iraqi war, Lt. Gen.
Douglas Lute, confirmed the proposal, calling it "a set of principles
from which to begin formal negotiations."

As part of the package, the Iraqis want an end to the current
U.N.-mandated multinational forces mission, and also an end to all
U.N.-ordered restrictions on Iraq's sovereignty.

In a televised address Monday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said his
government will ask the U.N. to renew the mandate for the
multinational force for one final time, with its authorization to end
in 2008. He insisted that the U.N. remove all restrictions on Iraqi
sovereignty.

Iraq has been living under some form of U.N. restriction since the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the officials said.

U.S. troops and other foreign forces operate in Iraq under a U.N.
Security Council mandate, which has been renewed annually since 2003.
Iraqi officials have said they want that next renewal which must be
approved by the U.N. Security Council by the end of this year to be
the last.

The two senior Iraqi officials said Iraqi authorities had discussed
the broad outlines of the proposal with U.S. military and diplomatic
representatives. The Americans appeared generally favorable subject to
negotiations on the details, which include preferential treatment for
American investments, according to the Iraqi officials involved in the
discussions.

The two Iraqi officials, who are from two different political parties,
spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is sensitive.
Members of parliament were briefed on the plan during a three-hour
closed-door meeting Sunday, during which lawmakers loyal to radical
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr objected to the formula.

Preferential treatment for U.S. investors could provide a huge
windfall if Iraq can achieve enough stability to exploit its vast oil
resources. Such a deal would also enable the United States to maintain
leverage against Iranian expansion at a time of growing fears about
Tehran's nuclear aspirations.

At the White House, Lute said the new agreement was not binding.

"It's not a treaty, but it's rather a set of principles from which to
begin formal negotiations," Lute said. "Think of today's agreement as
setting the agenda for the formal bilateral negotiations."

Those negotiations will take place during the course of 2008, with the
goal of completion by July, Lute said.

The new agreement on principles spells out what the formal, final
document will contain regarding political, economic and security matters.

"We believe, and Iraqis' national leaders believe, that a long-term
relationship with the United States is in our mutual interest," Lute said.

From the Iraqi side, Lute said, having the U.S. as a "reliable,
enduring partner with Iraq will cause different sects inside the Iraqi
political structure not to have to hedge their bets in a
go-it-alone-like setting, but rather they'll be able to bet on the
reliable partnership with the United States."

When asked about the plan, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo
noted that Iraqi officials had expressed a desire for a strategic
partnership with the U.S. in a political declaration in August and an
end to the U.N.-mandated force.

"Thereafter then, the question becomes one of bilateral relationships
between Iraq and the countries of the multinational forces," she said.
"At that point we need to be considering long-term bilateral
relationships and we're following the Iraqi thinking on this one and
we agree with their thinking on this and we'll be looking at setting
up a long-term partnership with different aspects to it, political,
economic, security and so forth."

She said any detailed discussion of bases and investment preferences
was "way, way, way ahead of where we are at the moment."

The Iraqi officials said that under the proposed formula, Iraq would
get full responsibility for internal security and U.S. troops would
relocate to bases outside the cities. Iraqi officials foresee a
long-term presence of about 50,000 U.S. troops, down from the current
figure of more than 160,000.

Haidar al-Abadi, a senior Dawa member of al-Maliki's Dawa party, told
Alhurra television that the prime minister would write parliament in
the next few days to tell lawmakers that his government would seek the
renewal of the U.N. mandate for "one last time."

Al-Abadi said the Iraqi government would make the renewal conditional
on ending all U.N.-mandated restrictions on Iraq's sovereignty.

The Iraqi target date for a bilateral agreement on the new
relationship would be July, when the U.S. intends to finish
withdrawing the five combat brigades sent in 2007 by President Bush as
part of the troop buildup that has helped curb sectarian violence.

On Sunday, Iraq's Shiite vice president hinted at such a formula,
saying the government will link discussions on the next extension of
the U.N. mandate to an agreement under which Iraq will gain full
sovereignty and "full control over all of its resources and issues."

Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi said Iraq wanted an "equal footing"
with the U.S. on security issues as a sovereign country so Iraqi could
"have relations with other states with sovereignty and interests."

He said the government would announce within days a "declaration of
intent" that would not involve military bases but would raise "issues
on organizing the presence of the multinational forces and ending
their presence on Iraqi soil."

One official said the Iraqis expect objections from Iraq's neighbors.
Iran and Syria will object because they oppose a U.S. presence in the
region.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia will not like the idea of any reduction in
their roles as Washington's most important Arab partners.

----------------

And as the US manages to slowly but surely squash
the insurgents/freedom-fighters (depending on your
perspective), Iraq edges closer towards becoming
the newest outlying US province ...

=============

6,000 Sunnis join pact with US in Iraq

By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer
2007/11/28 2:03pm PST

HAWIJA, Iraq - Nearly 6,000 Sunni Arab residents joined a security
pact with American forces Wednesday in what U.S. officers described as
a critical step in plugging the remaining escape routes for extremists
flushed from former strongholds.
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The new alliance called the single largest single volunteer
mobilization since the war began covers the "last gateway" for
groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq seeking new havens in northern Iraq,
U.S. military officials said.

U.S. commanders have tried to build a ring around insurgents who fled
military offensives launched earlier this year in the western Anbar
province and later into Baghdad and surrounding areas. In many places,
the U.S.-led battles were given key help from tribal militias mainly
Sunnis that had turned again al-Qaida and other groups.

Extremists have sought new footholds in northern areas once loyal to
Saddam Hussein's Baath party as the U.S.-led gains have mounted across
central regions. But their ability to strike near the capital remains.

A woman wearing an explosive-rigged belt blew herself up near an
American patrol near Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the
military announced Wednesday. The blast on Tuesday a rare attack by
a female suicide bomber wounded seven U.S. troops and five Iraqis,
the statement said.

The ceremony to pledge the 6,000 new fighters was presided over by
dozen sheiks each draped in black robes trimmed with gold braiding
who signed the contract on behalf of tribesmen at a small U.S. outpost
in north-central Iraq.

For about $275 a month nearly the salary for the typical Iraqi
policeman the tribesmen will man about 200 security checkpoints
beginning Dec. 7, supplementing hundreds of Iraqi forces already in
the area.

About 77,000 Iraqis nationwide, mostly Sunnis, have broken with the
insurgents and joined U.S.-backed self-defense groups.

Those groups have played a major role in the lull in violence: 648
Iraqi civilians have been killed or found dead in November to date,
according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. This compares
with 2,155 in May as the so-called "surge" of nearly 30,000 additional
American troops gained momentum.

U.S. troop deaths in Iraq have also dropped sharply. So far this
month, the military has reported 34 deaths, compared with 38 in
October. In June, 101 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.

Village mayors and others who signed Wednesday's agreement say about
200 militants have sought refuge in the area, about 30 miles southwest
of Kirkuk on the edge of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish
region. Hawija is a predominantly Sunni Arab cluster of villages which
has long been an insurgent flashpoint.

The recently arrived militants have waged a campaign of killing and
intimidation to try to establish a new base, said Sheikh Khalaf Ali
Issa, mayor of Zaab village.

"They killed 476 of my citizens, and I will not let them continue
their killing," Issa said.

With the help of the new Sunni allies, "the Hawija area will be an
obstacle to militants, rather than a pathway for them," said Maj. Sean
Wilson, with the Army's 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. "They're
another set of eyes that we needed in this critical area."

By defeating militants in Hawija, U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope to keep
them away from Kirkuk, an ethnically diverse city that is also the hub
of Iraq's northern oil fields.

"They want to go north into Kirkuk and wreak havoc there, and that's
exactly what we're trying to avoid," Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling,
the top U.S. commander in northern Iraq, told The Associated Press
this week.

Kurds often consider Kurkik part of their ancestral homeland and often
refer to the city as the "Kurdish Jerusalem." Saddam, however,
relocated tens of thousands of pro-regime Arabs to the city in the
1980s and 1990s under his "Arabization" policy.

The Iraqi government has begun resettling some of those Arabs to their
home regions, making room for thousands of Kurds who have gradually
returned to Kirkuk since Saddam's ouster.

Tension has been rising over the city's status whether it will join
the semi-autonomous Kurdish region or continue being governed by Baghdad.

"Hawija is the gateway through which all our communities Kurdish,
Turkomen and Arab alike can become unsafe," said Abu Saif
al-Jabouri, mayor of al-Multaqa village north of Kirkuk. "Do I love my
neighbor in Hawija? That question no longer matters. I must work to
help him, because his safety helps me."

In Baghdad, a bus convoy arrived carrying hundreds of refugees home
from Syria. The buses, funded by the Iraqi government, left Damascus
on Tuesday as part of a plan to speed the return of the estimated 2.2
million Iraqis who have fled to neighboring Syria and Jordan.

Iraq is now the 51st state (i told you so)

🔗monz <joemonz@...>

🔗monz <joemonz@...>

🔗monz <joemonz@...>