Could troop deal mean an independent Iraq?

[RSS News]

Officials say the Iraqi cabinet has approved a pact with the US that will see American troops withdrawing from streets. Is this good news for Iraq and the world?

(Feed provided by BBC News | Have your Say (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/talking_point/default.stm))

[PRC-UTE]

it's more or less the same as the US counter insurgency strategy in Vietnam, or the Brits in the six counties: shift the burden of the fighting to indigenous forces. it allows you to minimise the outcry back home over 'our boys' coming home in bodybags, and helps create the image that it's a conflict between stupid locals and the imperialist power is a neutral policing/civlising force fighting for human rights or whatever phrase makes it sound more acceptable.

[chegitz guevara]

Wasn't there supposed to be an election in Iraq this October?

[Devrim]

No small countries are 'independent' today. The whole idea of national independence is a myth.

Devrim

[zimmerwald1915]

No small countries are 'independent' today. The whole idea of national independence is a myth.

Devrim
No large countries are independent either, if by "independent" one means "able to resist the logic of imperialism".

[Junius]

An 'independent' Iraq invaded Iran and later Kuwait. The 'independence' of a country has nothing to do with defeating imperialism. It means that one nation state has gained the upper hand in expense of dead workers. Personally, I think that Iraq is divided and fragmented as it ever was. The independence of a country divided amongst ethnic and religious lines...

[Devrim]

Personally, I think that Iraq is divided and fragmented as it ever was.

I think Iraqi is more divided and fragmented that it ever was. Remember it used to be a unitary state. Nowadays, I think there is a possibility, however, small, of it splitting.

Devrim

[zimmerwald1915]

I think Iraqi is more divided and fragmented that it ever was. Remember it used to be a unitary state. Nowadays, I think there is a possibility, however, small, of it splitting.
Which outcome, incidentally, would be extraordinarily beneifical to almost all of its neighbors.

[butterfly]

Which outcome, incidentally, would be extraordinarily beneifical to almost all of its neighbors.
Why? Out of interest.

[zimmerwald1915]

Apart from the fact that it would remove a competitor and would open up a vacuum into which they could expand their own spheres of control?

[Devrim]

Which outcome, incidentally, would be extraordinarily beneifical to almost all of its neighbors.
Why? Out of interest.

Turkey for instance wants more influence in the North (Kurdish areas) and Iran wants more influence in the South (Shia areas)

Devrim

[Guerrilla22]

I'm sure there was a provision included allowing the US to maintain permanent bases in Iraq though. So it really is misleading to say the US will be withdrawing all troops by 2011 Iraq will remain a permanent US military garrison.