It's only a matter of 'when', not 'if.'
Posted on 11/18/2011 2:11:36 PM PST by Frankusa
On Sunday, the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Joint Forces, General Babaker Zebari, called for the expansion of military ties between Tehran and Baghdad during a meeting with the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards' ground forces, Gen. Mohammad Pakpouron.
The meeting came in the wake of President Obama's announcement, in October, that all US forces would be withdrawn from Iraq by year's end, and on the heels of the President's failure [and apparent unwillingness] to negotiate a deal with Iraq that would enable a residual US force to remain in the country to help train Iraqi troops and to ensure that Iran does not expand its influence in Iraq and in the country's military affairs.
Question: Did the President's announcement, and his failure to negotiate the aforementioned deal, compel Gen. Zebari to meet with Iranian military leaders?
Apparently, yes.
In August of 2010, the AFP reported as follows:
The Iraqi army will require American support for another decade before it is ready to handle the country's security on its own, Iraq's army chief of staff told AFP on Wednesday.Gen. Zebari asserted that a continued US troop presence in Iraq [until 2020, when the Iraqi army would be fully prepared to take over] was absolutely necessary. Moreover, he contended that after 2011, when the US military presence ended, "the problem will start", and then "the politicians must find other ways to FILL THE VOID."Lieutenant General Babaker Zebari said Iraq's politicians had to find a way to "FILL THE VOID" after American troops withdraw from the country at the end of next year...
"At this point, the withdrawal (of US forces) is going well, because they are still here," Zebari said.
"But the problem will start after 2011; the politicians must find other ways to FILL THE VOID after 2011, because the army will be fully ready in 2020.
"If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020."
"Fill the void", those are the key words.
In August of 2010, the LA Times - after quoting a US military commander as saying that the Iraqi army will not be able to stand alone by the time U.S. troops go home and that there will have to be some form of continued U.S. military presence beyond 2011 - quoted [the aforementioned] Gen. Zebari as saying:
"If America withdraws its forces and one of the neighboring countries causes problems, then we're going to have a problem.""Neighboring countries" = Iran
Additionally, Reuters reported last month that a U.S. inspector's report, released on October 30, 2011, quoted Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari as saying that the Iraqi military will not be fully ready to defend Iraq from external threats until 2020 to 2024:
Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari has repeatedly warned that Iraq's security forces, rebuilt after the 2003 invasion that ousted strongman Saddam Hussein, would not be ready for years.Conclusion: In the wake of President Obama's announcement, last month, that no US military personnel, or residual US force, would remain in Iraq past 2011, it appears that Gen. Zebari and his superiors felt that the only way to fill the "FILL THE VOID" and to protect their country from the menacing Iranian threat was to cozy up to Iran [and its military]. Hence, the meeting on Sunday between Gen. Zebari and the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards."General Zebari suggested that the MOD (Ministry of Defense) will be unable to execute the full spectrum of external-defense missions until sometime between 2020 and 2024," said the report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).
Iraqi leaders have accused neighbors of meddling, and U.S. military officials say Iran arms Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
"While we have no enemies, we also have no real friends," the SIGIR report quoted Zebari as saying of the Iraqi government's relations with its neighbors.
Did the President's announcement about a complete withdrawal of US troops, and his failure to negotiate a deal with Iraq that would allow a residual force to remain in the country, compel Gen. Zebari to meet with Iranian military leaders?
Yes.
The Obama Administration, the gift that keeps on giving . . . lots and lots of really bad things for America.
Sickening.
I thought we learned our lesson in Viet Nam that declaring victory and getting our a$$es out doesn’t work out too well.
Another ‘victory’. And slap in the face to the men and women who won the war whilst Obamanation lost the victory.
It's only a matter of 'when', not 'if.'
in 2004 Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert M. Gates co-authored the Council on Foreign Relations paper "Iran: Time for a New Approach" calling for negotiations.Now we see Iran has used Citibank to launder its assets out of reach of U.S. sanctions.
Is Citibank Being Abused By The Islamic Republic Of Iran?
Obama did not intevene to assist the Iranian people being beaten, imprisoned, killed by Ahmadinejad in 2009.
Obama has abetted the removal of the region's secular regimes to allow Iran to infiltrate.
Obama has ringed Israel with armed enemies and weakens the U.S.
Behold the Degenerate Islamo Commie Kenyan.
Replace him with Cain who has said he'll clarify the minds of the enemy:
"Go ahead, Ahmadinejad, make my day."
Carter only gave Iran to the islamists and abandoned the Panama Canal... Obama is doing Carter but way worse: He's giving the entire Middle East to the islamists, while abandoning Israel to her enemies (at least Carter rushed US military aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur war) and rather than just the canal, he's working on delivering South America to the communists, while allowing the islamists to gain a foothold in both South America and Mexico.
It's almost as if Obama looked at Carter as a failure for not doing enough to undermine the US in every hemisphere of the globe!
Mark
ltr
Agreed! It's almost as if we elected Bill Ayers, which, come to think of it, we basically have.
One minor quibble: The Yom Kippur War was on Nixon's watch. Carter brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel.
Sorry, you're right... Carter wasn't elected until 1976, was he? I should have known better, Carter wouldn't do anything to save Israel.
Mark
The Kurds should be able to hold their own in Northern Iraq, which should provide a safe location from which to launch any major evacuation of friendlies from Central Iraq. Evacuations from Southern Iraq will likely be staged out of Kuwait or Saudi (depends on how willing the two nations would be to standing up against a resurgent Persian Empire), with evac points well out in the desert so that any hostiles can be spotted and engaged well before they reach the sites.
When I was in the Army in the 70’s we were afraid he wouldn’t act to save Europe. It was doctrine since Eisenhower that America would use nukes to defend NATO countries. Because of doubts Jimmuh would do that in the event of a Warsaw Pact conventional attack (and they had overwhelming numerical superiority), the military tried to figure out would we could do if he refused.
This is wrong on so many levels ...
The new American geopolitical strategy is Asia & Asia-Pacific, not Iraq or Afghanistan.
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