WORLD> Middle East
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WORLD> Middle East
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Iraq wants all troops gone by end of 2011
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-02 18:47 Privately, however, US officials were growing pessimistic about chances for a deal. Failure to seal a deal with Iraqi politicians who owe their position to the 2003 US-led invasion would be a huge embarrassment to President George W. Bush, whose administration was largely defined by the unpopular war.
In Baghdad, US military officials have urged the Iraqis to consider what could happen here if the US suspends military operations, warning that the security gains won by the blood of American and Iraqi soldiers would be at risk. Violence is down here sharply after the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida and the routing of Shiite militias in Baghdad and southern Iraq last spring. But US and other coalition forces also provide considerable help to Iraqi ministries in infrastructure and quality of life projects which would have to stop, along with control of the airspace and protection of Iraq's oil export facilities in the Persian Gulf. "There's really no area that we as a coalition ... operate in that is not governed by legal authority," US military spokesman Brig. Gen. David Perkins told reporters. He said the US military presence enables other international organizations including the U.N. and private groups to do their jobs. "These things are all interrelated," Perkins said. "You pull one pillar out, you seriously degrade the efforts of others." Despite the drop in violence, attacks are continuing daily. On Thursday, a car bomb exploded near a market in north Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five, police said. The blast occurred about a half hour after a roadside bomb went off near a police patrol at an intersection in the Fudhailiya area in eastern Baghdad, wounding six people, including three policemen, officials said. They all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information to media.
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