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Blog von Joachim Guilliard

Englische Übersetzung meines Beitrags "Irak: Downsizing der Besatzung" bei Tlaxcala, dem internationalen Übersetzernetzwerk. Übersetzt von John Catalinotto, Chefredakteur von Workers World

Iraq: Downsizing the occupation
Joachim Guilliard, 1.12.2011

The failure of the U.S. government's effort to extend the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq was entirely foreseeable. [1] Nevertheless, one can hardly believe that now at the end of the year 2011, almost nine years after the invasion that all the U.S. regular troops leave the country and huge military bases will remain vacant. Although this can be seen as a success, the occupation is naturally not completely ended. The U.S. is now trying to maintain its influence through a considerable number of civilian occupation forces.
 

At the same time Washington is working in concert with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on new ways to allow the return of a greater number of troops to Iraq. Whether or not these plans succeed: of the long-standing plan, so cherished by the U.S., to permanently station in Iraq a large number of rapidly deployable forces -- as a nucleus of projection of U.S. military power in the region -- there remains as little left over as of the ambitious plans regarding control and privatization of Iraqi oil production. Even if some of the displaced battalions from Iraq are now withdrawn to the neighboring countries, the forced withdrawal of the remaining nearly 40,000 soldiers is a mark of the failure of a costly and expensive war. "Put any spin you want on that withdrawal," writes the well-known U.S. journalist Tom Engelhardt, "but this still represents a defeat of the first order, humiliation on a scale and in a time frame that would have been unimaginable in the invasion year of 2003." [2 ]

U.S. President Barack Obama tried very hard to raise as little attention as possible with his announcement of the final pullout. First on Friday, Oct. 21 at 1 p.m. he announced it at a hastily convened press conference the day after the assassination of Libyan leader Moammar al-Gadhafi, which was celebrated as the final victory in Libya and dominated the front pages. [3] It was a remarkably brief explanation that officially ended a nearly nine-year old war. Obama tried to make the best out of the situation and sold the withdrawal as fulfilling his election promise to end the Iraq war immediately. He concealed, however, that his people had spent the whole year in Iraq putting all the levers in motion to prevent such a complete withdrawal.

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