Posted on 06/28/2009 9:06:47 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Iran continues to "interfere" in Iraq, including training insurgents and paying surrogates, the U.S. commander in Iraq told CNN on Sunday.
But Army Gen. Ray Odierno said his mission is limited to providing security within Iraq, no matter the provocation from Iran or elsewhere.
"I'm not authorized to do anything outside the borders of Iraq," he said on the CNN program "State of the Union."
Iran's government has repeatedly denied fomenting violence inside Iraq.
Despite some high-profile bombings and attacks in recent days, Iraq's security forces are ready to take over for U.S. forces this week to stabilize the nation's major cities, Odierno said.
He said he's seen a "constant improvement" in both the security situation and governance in Iraq to prepare for the June 30 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from major cities.
"They've been working for this for a long time," Odierno said.
The shift is part of the security agreement that former President George W. Bush's administration signed with Iraq.
Odierno said the situation has improved, despite the recent violence he blamed on "extremist elements using the timeframe and date to gain attention to themselves and divert attention from the success of Iraqi security forces."
The 131,000 U.S. troops in Iraq still will "maintain full coordination with Iraqi forces inside the cities" and continue to have intelligence capacity, Odierno said. With approval from the Iraqis, they also will carry out operations in major cities as necessary, he said.
Odierno said his goal is to help provide security that allows Iraq to hold planned national elections leading to the eventual removal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at aina.org ...
And we should be surprised at this.
Army Gen. Ray Odierno is one of the FEW Flag/Gen officers to “get it”.
Does "interfere" equal "meddle"?
What's the old saying, what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander.
In this metaphor, Iran is the goose and the United States of America is the gander.
Ged'it?
No,
Nor should we be surprised that we allow our soldier to be killed as a result of Iran and we do nothing.
RONALD REAGAN would not have allowed the b.s. to happen.
But this punk ass “magic negro” does as did G.W. Bush.
Iran should have been stopped cold years ago when they killed one American soldier.
Course our state dept isn’t interested in Americans safety.
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