CNN’s Michael Ware on Iraq withdrawal agreement: ‘Tehran was in the room.’
CNN’s Michael Ware on Iraq withdrawal agreement: ‘Tehran was in the room.’
On Sunday, Iraq’s cabinet “overwhelmingly approved a proposed security agreement that calls for a full withdrawal of American forces from the country by the end of 2011.” Earlier today, the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss spoke to CNN’s Michael Ware, who said that the agreement is testament to Iran’s influence in Iraqi politics:
WARE: Iran has a whip hand, or a key hand at least, within the political framework there. So during these negotiations between Baghdad and Washington, Tehran — whether we like it or not — was in the room. Tehran, in some ways, in some fashion, is a party to this agreement. And you’ll see that some of the sticking points and some of the nuances within the negotiations were issues that were very close to the heart of Tehran.
Watch it:
Read Ware’s full interview here.
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So Wares contention is that for the Iraqis to want US out of THEIR country it HAS to be because Iran told them too? I guess if WE were occupied by say China we would welcome them with open arms unless the Soviets were pulling our strings to want them gone? When are Americans going to stop pretending Iraqis are CHILDREN and WE know what is best for them?
November 17th, 2008 at 8:59 pmI guess we have to hear about how powerful and what an imminent threat Iran is for the next 4 years.
We need to make a decision. Either start killing everyone or start living with everyone. We have been at war for almost 6 years now with nothing to show for it except a morally bankrupt republican party and a bankrupt nation.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:14 pmAh, the Bush moron regime. By illegally and criminally invading and occupying the formerly sovereign Republic of Iraq, the Bush idiots have managed to cripple our economy, devalue our dollar, bankrupt our Federal budget, and increase the stature of the Iranians, the Russians and the Chinese. Heck of a job, Bush clowns: you are ten times more destructive to our national intrests than al-Queda…
November 17th, 2008 at 9:43 pmCongrats Chymp! Your ill planned imperial excursion has had the unintended consequence of strengthening the only major Shiite nation in the Middle East!
November 17th, 2008 at 10:04 pmPS. and you still haven’t found the rebel tapes yet, have you!!
November 17th, 2008 at 10:05 pmCould it be at least slightly believable that a country doesn’t want an occupying army from a country that doesn’t even know the basics of their culture, who bombed them into the stone ages, ……….
November 17th, 2008 at 10:22 pmYep, take out hussein the sunnie who has been at war with the shiite’s in Iran for 30 years and turn Iraq over to the Shiite’s that hussein has been oppressing for 30 years and then act surprised when the shiit’s of both countries turn out to be friends.
Who thought this plan up anyway? Oh yeah.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:29 pmThis is a perfect reason to note that we should have withdrawn our troops a year after the fall of Baghdad.
We should start to honor the Iraqi wishes by removing our troops from Baghdad and the other cities back to a saver defendable location and take them out of harms way and start sending them home now.
As far as the peace and stability in Iraq goes, I’m afraid that we’ll have to leave that up to the Iraqi’s. But I suspect that once our troops are out of harms way, the long term effect of them being there is going to be the same as the effect your fist has in a bucket of water when you remove it.
Bring them home, say we’re sorry we screwed up their country and the Iraqi people more then they were before.
We went to Iraq for the oil and all we got was over 4,000 young Americans dead, 100’s of thousands of Iraqi dead, and a Million, Million dollars of the American People’s money lost in the desert.
Heckuva job Georgie!
“It will take America fifteen years of steady taking care of our own business and letting everybody else’s alone, to get us back to where everybody speaks to us again.” – Will Rogers – Cowboy Philosopher
November 17th, 2008 at 10:34 pm.
Well, if China had occupied and overthrown the government of Canada, thrown that country into complete chaos and proceeded to steel it’s coal, all the while flexing it’s military muscle by threatening to attack America and D.C., I think the U.S. Government would have a stake in their withdrawal…
… NO?
.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:23 amIran-the 800 lb gorilla in the room
November 18th, 2008 at 1:35 amMax-1 Says:
Good point Max
November 18th, 2008 at 2:32 amApparently xenophobia is not a sound basis for foreign policy.
November 18th, 2008 at 6:32 amEnd of 2011, eh? Just two more years and aWol will surely have stretched our military to the breaking point. What part of government will he fail to ruin?
November 18th, 2008 at 7:39 am