As long as the Iraqi army is engaged in conflict with the resistance, the US presence can, conceivably, be justified as a back-up. But what if the army and the resistance start to reach an understanding? This, it seems, is precisely what happened when army was sent into Basra to deal with Sadr’s men and ended up fraternising with them. That this was the moment that broke the back of the US/UK occupation, is confirmed by the US hopes, expressed below, that hostilities between Sadr and the army will recommence.  Contrary to the hopes of Western imperialists and their stooges, the Iraq nation, rather than fragmenting, is cohering in opposition to the occupation.It is the structures of power in the US/UK which will be fragmenting!

A double-edged sword: US generals welcome Iraqi military’s new confidence, but also worry

Robert Burns(AP news)

wiredispatch.com

13th July, 2008

Wajih Hameed is an Iraqi general with an attitude. 

With a satisfied look, he listened as a subordinate officer explained to the deputy commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad how he plans to reposition his troops in the coming weeks. 

“Before, they would have asked us to propose a plan” in such a circumstance and then would have accepted it with little argument, said Brig. Gen. Will Grimsley, who led a group of American officers to Hameed’s office on Thursday. “Now they are telling us how they will do it,” he said in an interview afterward.

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“The American soldiers should be based in agreed camps outside the cities and population areas.”

It sounds more like hostages than occupiers: but, anyway, anything’s better then them coming home where they might start venting their anger on the chicken hawks

Sunday,13th July, 2008(Missing Links)

WaPo this morning (Sunday July 13) says the Bush administration has scaled back to trying to negotiate an “interim” agreement insofar as its military presence and operations in Iraq are concerned, having finally realized the solidity of Iraqi opposition to the idea of open-ended American presence, and the difficulty of negotiating a withdrawal schedule.

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Any long-term deal on extended presence will wait for next administration

Karen DeYoung

MSNBC

13th July, 2008

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have abandoned efforts to conclude a comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S troops in Iraq before the end of the Bush presidency, according to senior U.S. officials, effectively leaving talks over an extended U.S. military presence there to the next administration.

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