Rudd tells Maliki: Australian troops are coming home.
By on Dec 22nd, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Rudd tells Maliki: Australian troops are coming home.
Newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a surprise visit to Baghdad today and assured Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki “of a long-term partnership but stressed his combat troops deployed here would head home by June next year”:
“Earlier today I visited Australian battle group in Talil (southern Iraq) and spoke directly to what is a fine body of men and women,” Mr Rudd told a Baghdad news conference with his counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki.
“That battle group will come to a conclusion as of June next year. And that will be the last battle group we deploy.”
UPDATE: A look at the coalition of the defeated.
View Most Popular
Advertisement
What We're About
What We're Fighting For
What We're Fighting Against
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Afghanistan
Bachmann
Beck
Boehner
Business
Civil Rights
Congress
Corporate Ethics
Dobbs
Economy
Education
Election
Energy
Environment
Ethics
Fox News
Gingrich
Global Warming
Health Care
Hoffman
Immigration
International Relations
Iraq
Justice
LGBT
Lieberman
Limbaugh
Media
Military
O'Reilly
Obama
Palin
Pelosi
Politics
Race
Radical Right
Religion
Sports
Steele
Stimulus
Tea Parties
Tea Party
Terrorism
Veterans
Women's Rights
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
Reports
In-depth studies on select topics
Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
ArchivesBlog Roll
buh bye!
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:52 pmThe coallition of the w…. where the fsck did they go?
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:59 pmYahooo! The Brits and now the Aussies. Let’s hope the pressure builds on the US.
http://13martyrs.blogspot.com/
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:59 pmIt’s time to bring our boys back home (and our girls, too…). In a side note, our gutlless U. S. Congress can’t stop the funding for the illegal imperial occupation of Iraq, nah… Our gutless U. S. Congress can’t Impeach, Try, Convict and Remove the lying, election-stealing, war-mongering torturing traitors Cheney and Bush, but they can outlaw the beloved 100-watt light bulb… If you want to do something to “save the environment,” don’t have children, don’t reproduce. Human overpopulation is what is destroying the Earth, not our having our little 100-watt lightbulbs.
Merry Christmas.
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:01 pmThe new Polish government also decided to take their troops out of Iraq by October next year.
So, the Coalition of the Willing is getting smaller and smaller,and only Americans will be there in Iraq for years to come.
These Coalition governments ,who sided with Bush when the war began are no longer in power,they were replaced by newly elected governments in these countries .
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:04 pmAfter weighing the postives vs. the negatives,the plus/minus ratio, they decided to ‘call it quit…’
Arrogant, go it alone, bunker mentality better serve Busch well now.
∞
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:30 pmC’mon Shrub, maybe you could convince the Iraqi leadership through diplomacy to give up their oil…
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:42 pmNAH.
When Bush went to Australia this year to attend the APEC Summit (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation)…he thought it was the OPEC summit…and he thought he was in Austria addressing and thanking Australian politicians assembled to listen to him,for participation of Austrian troops in the Coalition of the Willing.
May be Rudd’s decision will take Bush a month to digest…
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:43 pmIT WAS ALWAYS A FLIMSY “COALLITION”. OR MORE PRECISELY, ‘THE COALLITION OF THE COERSED”. LITTLE RIGHT-WING JONNY HOWARD (READ COWARD), FOLLOWED THE WAR CRIMINAL IN THE WHITE HOUSE JUST LIKE THE THAT OTHER WAR CRIMINAL FROM BRITAN DID… WE VOTED HIM OUT! RUDD PROMISSED TO PULL OUR TROOPS OUT OF THIS CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE AND HE IS DOING PRECISELY THAT. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE STILL DOES NOT REALISE HOW ALONE THEIR COUNTRY IS BECAUSE OF THE CRIMINALS IN GOVERNMENT. ALONE! NO ONE TRUSTS OR BELEIVE IN THE USA AFTER THE FIASCO IN IRAQ, ALMOST ANOTHER WAR CRIME AGAINST IRAN, TORTURE IN ABU GRAIB/GUANTANAMO/SECRETE PRISONS BY THE USA, THE DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCEM TREASON AND IMPUNITY OF THE WAR CRIMINALS DICK CHENNEY, WC. BUSH, RICE, GATES, PERLE, WOLFOWITZ, RUMSFELD, BREMER, NEGROPNTE, AND ALL THE FACISTS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS OBSCENE ADMINITRATION.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:41 pmMaliki, Bush Trample Iraq’s Democracy
The United States, it is said, invaded Iraq to create democracy. The truth of that proposition aside, the unseemly, hurried-up renewal of the United Nations mandate that supports the U.S. occupation of Iraq this week trampled on the very idea of democracy.
Last summer, Iraq’s parliament – yes, the very parliament that was elected by millions of Iraqis with painted thumbs in 2005 – voted to endorse the notion that the renewal of the UN Security Council mandate for the American occupation for 2008 be submitted to a vote in parliament. In that vote, 144 members of the 275-member body voted to make clear that the parliament gets a say. The Iraqi constitution, flawed as it is, requires (Article 73, Section 2) that any international treaties and agreements be subject to a two-thirds approval by the parliament.
Pressured by the United States, however, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flagrantly ignored both the parliamentary vote and the constitutional requirement. He submitted the request to the UNSC on his own authority, and got it. Some democracy.
Incidentally, the parliament might have approved the renewal, or it might not have. But at the very least, nationalists in parliament – who comprise a majority – would have imposed conditions on the renewal, probably including a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Polls consistently show that upwards of three-quarters of Iraqis want the U.S. to leave Iraq. Not counting the Kurds, who generally favor an American presence, among Iraqi Arabs – Sunni and Shia – there is nearly universal support for a U.S. withdrawal.
On December 19, Representative Bill Delahunt (D.-Mass.) – in conjunction with a guest member of his subcommittee, Representative Jim McDermott (D.-Wash.) — held a hearing into the matter. At the hearing, an expert from the Law Library of Congress testified that Maliki had rolled the parliament. Issam Michael Saliba, the senior foreign law specialist for the Middle East and North Africa at the library, said that it was clear that the Iraqi parliament has the right to approve the UN mandate:
It is a general principle of constitutional law that international treaties and agreements require legislative approval for their validity. Article 73 Section 2 of the Iraqi constitution subscribes to this principle by providing that the president of the republic may ratify international treaties and agreements only after the approval of parliament. …
Under this definition, the request made by the Iraqi government to extend the mandate of the multinational troops in Iraq and the assent of the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution extending such a mandate constitute in my opinion an international agreement subject to the constitutional approval of parliament.
Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi and a representative of the American Friends Service Committee, noted that Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said several times, including two weeks ago, that the UN mandate renewal would not occur without parliamentary approval. “This will be the last request for troops extension. It will not be represented to the United Nations Security Council prior to its submission to the Iraqi parliament for deliberation,” said Zebari.
The key question, said Jarrar, is: “Is the Iraqi parliament being ignored, and what are the consequences of this policy of ignoring the legislative branch?” By riding roughshod over parliament, President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki are teaching Iraqis that they have no respect at all for democracy and the rule of law.
The next battle will be the U.S.-Iraq treaty that will govern the long-term presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, including possible permanent bases. The United States and Iraq are supposed to conclude that accord by July, 2008. That accord will be subject to parliamentary approval, says Maliki–but who knows? He might try to impose that one, too.
In any case, the just-renewed UN mandate will expire in December, 2008. At the point, without a U.S.-Iraq agreement, the occupation will be illegal. If Maliki does submit it to parliament, what are the chances that body will approve it by December? Slim to none. And what happens if they don’t? Stay tuned.
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:24 pmHope ours won’t be far behind!
December 22nd, 2007 at 5:12 pmI can’t wait till June. But will.
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:05 pmWith the recent pullouts, are there any nations still providing a significant percentage of forces on the ground ?
Just thinking – if the US military is already doing multiple 15 month stints, how much longer will the rotations have to be to make up for the Brits and Australians ?
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:49 pmI think Mauritania is still in the coalition of the willing!!!!
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 amKilo, so how many troops does that leave?
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 amHistory will record with ignominy in its inerasable pages that Kevin Rudd, The Prime Minister of Australia, was the only political leader in the history of war that surrendered to the enemy while his soldiers and his allies were winning the war.
December 23rd, 2007 at 8:10 amSo, as Kilo mentioned, Australia has about 1,500 troops involved in Iraqi operations, although most are outside the country. Only the 550 combat troops deployed in the south are subject to Mr Rudd’s withdrawal plan.
So, how many will this leave, inside the country?
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:09 am