Iraq PM: Immunity issue scuttled US troop deal
If you tell yourself that you wouldn’t do the same in al-Maliki’s shoes then you are lying. I love the US, but if roles were reversed the only right call is that the foreign troops are either subject to civil law, or they go. This is a ploy that gets Obama a win prior to our election and troops home for Christmas while strengthening the elected government of Iraq. After almost 9 years it’s overdue.
Iraq’s prime minister said Saturday that U.S. troops are leaving Iraq after nearly nine years of war because Baghdad rejected American demands that any U.S. military forces to stay would have to be shielded from prosecution or lawsuits.
The comments by Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, made clear that it was Iraq who refused to let the U.S. military remain under the Americans’ terms.
A day earlier, President Barack Obama had hailed the troops’ withdrawal as the result of his commitment - promised shortly after taking office in 2009 - to end the war that he once described as “dumb.”
“When the Americans asked for immunity, the Iraqi side answered that it was not possible,” al-Maliki told reporters in Baghdad. “The discussions over the number of trainers and the place of training stopped. Now that the issue of immunity was decided and that no immunity to be given, the withdrawal has started.”
Nearly 40,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, all of whom will withdraw by Dec. 31 - a deadline set in a 2008 security agreement between Baghdad and Washington.