Decision time

There’s no voting present on the Iraqi request for troops to remain there (BBC link);

“It’s clear to me that Iraq is considering the possibility of making a request for some kind of [troop] presence to remain there [in Iraq],” Mr Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

He said that whether that happened depended on what Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki might ask for.

But if Baghdad did make such a request, he added, Washington should say yes.

Mr Panetta did not say how many troops would be involved or what they would do.

He said there were still some 1,000 al-Qaeda members in Iraq, and the situation remained “fragile”.
Leon Panetta at a Senate committee hearing in Washington. Photo: 9 June 2011 Leon Panetta said the situation in Iraq remained “fragile”

“I believe that we should take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that we protect whatever progress we’ve made there,” Mr Panetta said.

So Captain Awesome has a choice – pander to his base who he has already thrown under the bus more times than I count, or do what’s right. I’m pretty sure he’s hoping the Iraqis would make the choice for him, but apparently that’s not in the cards.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War