Out of Iraq? Not so fast …
By Justin Raimondo
"How, one wonders, could President-elect Barack Obama possibly hope to implement his announced foreign policy goals when he's entrusted his enemies – the Clntonites, and the Republicans – to implement them? I've wondered that myself, but now the mystery is cleared up by Robert Gates, the GOP defense secretary who says we'll be in Iraq "for decades." In an interview with George Will, Gates let the cat out of the bag:
"Regarding Iraq, Gates is parsimonious with his confidence, noting that ‘the multisectarian democracy has not sunk very deep roots yet.' He stresses, however, that there is bipartisan congressional support for ‘a long-term residual presence' of perhaps 40,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and that the president-elect's recent statements have not precluded that. Such a presence "for decades" has, he says, followed major US military operations since 1945, other than in Vietnam. And he says, ‘Look at how long Britain has had troops in Cyprus.'".
Cyprus was a British colony in 1956 when a revolt, led by the EOKA group, broke out: 40,000 troops were tied down until 1960......."
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