Last U.S. troops leave Iraq, ending war

Patrick Markey and Joseph Logan, 12/18/11

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The last convoy of U.S. soldiers pulled out of Iraq on Sunday, ending nearly nine years of war that cost almost 4,500 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and left a country grappling with political uncertainty.

The war launched in March 2003 with missiles striking Baghdad to oust President Saddam Hussein closes with a fragile democracy still facing insurgents, sectarian tensions and the challenge of defining its place in an Arab region in turmoil.

The final column of around 100 mostly U.S. military MRAP armored vehicles carrying 500 U.S. troops trundled across the southern Iraq desert from their last base through the night and daybreak along an empty highway to the Kuwaiti border.

Honking their horns, the last batch of around 25 American military trucks and tractor trailers carrying Bradley fighting vehicles crossed the border early Sunday morning, their crews waving at fellow troops along the route.

"I just can't wait to call my wife and kids and let them know I am safe," Sgt. First Class Rodolfo Ruiz said as the border came into sight. Soon afterwards, he told his men the mission was over, "Hey guys, you made it."

For U.S. President Barack Obama, the military pullout is the fulfillment of an election promise to bring troops home from a conflict inherited from his predecessor, the most unpopular war since Vietnam and one that tainted America's standing worldwide.

For Iraqis, though, the U.S. departure brings a sense of sovereignty tempered by nagging fears their country may slide once again into the kind of sectarian violence that killed many thousands of people at its peak in 2006-2007.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government still struggles with a delicate power-sharing arrangement between Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni parties, leaving Iraq vulnerable to meddling by Sunni Arab nations and Shi'ite Iran.

The intensity of violence and suicide bombings has subsided. But a stubborn Sunni Islamist insurgency and rival Shi'ite militias remain a threat, carrying out almost daily attacks, often on Iraqi government and security officials.

Iraq says its forces can contain the violence but they lack capabilities in areas such as air defense and intelligence gathering. A deal for several thousand U.S. troops to stay on as trainers fell apart over the sensitive issue of legal immunity.

For many Iraqis, security remains a worry - but no more than jobs and getting access to power in a country whose national grid provides only a few hours of electricity a day despite the OPEC country's vast oil potential.

U.S. and foreign companies are already helping Iraq develop the world's fourth-largest oil reserves, but its economy needs investment in all sectors, from hospitals to infrastructure.

"We don't think about America... We think about electricity, jobs, our oil, our daily problems," said Abbas Jaber, a government employee in Baghdad. "They (Americans) left chaos."

GOING HOME

After Obama announced in October that troops would come home by the end of the year as scheduled, the number of U.S. military bases was whittled down quickly as hundreds of troops and trucks carrying equipment headed south to Kuwait.

U.S. forces, which had ended combat missions in 2010, paid $100,000 a month to tribal sheikhs to secure stretches of the highways leading south to reduce the risk of roadside bombings and attacks on the last convoys.

Only around 150 U.S. troops will remain in the country attached to a training and cooperation mission at the huge U.S. embassy on the banks of the Tigris river.

At the height of the war, more than 170,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq at more than 500 bases. By Saturday, there were fewer than 3,000 troops, and one base - Contingency Operating Base Adder, 300 km (185 miles) south of Baghdad.

At COB Adder, as dusk fell before the departure of the last convoy, soldiers slapped barbecue sauce on slabs of ribs brought from Kuwait and laid them on grills beside hotdogs and sausages.

Earlier, 25 soldiers sat on folding chairs in front of two armored vehicles watching a five-minute ceremony as their brigade's flags were packed up for the last time before loading up their possessions and lining up their trucks.

The last troops flicked on the lights studding their MRAP vehicles and stacked flak jackets and helmets in neat piles, ready for the final departure for Kuwait and then home.

"A good chunk of me is happy to leave. I spent 31 months in this country," said Sgt. Steven Schirmer, 25, after three tours of Iraq since 2007. "It almost seems I can have a life now, though I know I am probably going to Afghanistan in 2013. Once these wars end I wonder what I will end up doing."

NEIGHBOURS KEEP WATCH

Iran and Turkey, major investors in Iraq, will be watching with Gulf nations to see how their neighbor handles its sectarian and ethnic tensions, as the crisis in Syria threatens to spill over its borders.

The fall of Saddam allowed the long-suppressed Shi'ite majority to rise to power. The Shi'ite-led government has drawn the country closer to Iran and Syria's Bashar al-Assad, who is struggling to put down a nine-month-old uprising.

Iraq's Sunni minority is chafing under what it sees as the increasingly authoritarian control of Maliki's Shi'ite coalition. Some local leaders are already pushing mainly Sunni provinces to demand more autonomy from Baghdad.

The main Sunni political bloc Iraqiya said on Saturday that it was temporarily suspending its participation in the parliament to protest against what it said was Maliki's unwillingness to deliver on power-sharing.

A dispute between the semi-autonomous Kurdish region and Maliki's central government over oil and territory is also brewing, and is a potential flashpoint after the buffer of the American military presence is gone.

"There is little to suggest that Iraq's government will manage, or be willing, to get itself out of the current stalemate," said Gala Riani, an analyst at IHS Global Insight.

"The perennial divisive issues that have become part of the fabric of Iraqi politics, such as divisions with Kurdistan and Sunni suspicions of the government, are also likely to persist."

(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal; writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

http://news.yahoo.com/nearly-nine-years-u-withdraws-iraq-043831767.html

本文於 修改第 1 次

戰爭結束！駐伊美軍年底全撤 歐巴馬兌現承諾 但表示將協助訓練伊軍 為重返預留伏筆 共和黨則認為撤軍恐使伊朗肆無忌憚

尹德瀚, 中國時報, 10/23/11

美國總統歐巴馬廿一日在華盛頓宣布，現有近四萬名駐伊美軍將於今年底全部撤出伊拉克。從二○○三年三月美軍入侵伊拉克算起，這場耗時超過八年半，導致近四千五百名美軍死亡、三萬兩千多名美軍受傷、讓美國付出七千億美元高昂代價的戰爭，終於可望正式結束。

然而美國並非心甘情願的全數撤軍。過去幾個月雙方官員一直就維持幾千名美軍駐紮伊拉克進行訓練任務展開談判，但美方要求讓這些美軍享有司法豁免權，伊拉克不肯讓步，最後談判破裂，美軍除保留少數保衛大使館之外，其餘都將打道回府。

駐伊拉克美軍最多時達十九萬人，這幾年逐步遞減到將近四萬人。歐巴馬與伊拉克總理馬里奇進行視訊會議後宣布，美國在伊拉克的戰爭即將結束，駐伊拉克美軍一定可以回家過節。他並聲稱，今後美國與伊拉克將同一般主權國家一樣彼此互動。歐巴馬並未宣稱美國在伊拉克戰爭中獲勝，不過他談到自己任內戰績，包括讓全球頭號恐怖分子奧薩瑪．賓拉登伏法。

歐巴馬原本就反對伊拉克戰爭，競選總統期間他以早日結束伊戰為政見，上任不久即宣布，將在二○一○年八月卅一日前結束在伊拉克的戰鬥任務。而根據二○○八年布希政府與伊拉克達成的協議，駐伊美軍必須於二○一一年年底全部撤離。歐巴馬基本上兌現了承諾，有助於他競選連任。

但共和黨還是有話要說。共和黨總統提名呼聲最高的參選人羅姆尼說，歐巴馬此舉將無法確保伊拉克有秩序的轉型。共和黨參議員麥肯則表示，從伊拉克撤軍將使鄰國伊朗更加肆無忌憚，並使已經擔心美國不守信諾的阿富汗總統卡札更加心寒。

即使美國從伊拉克撤軍，美國在伊拉克的勢力還是相當可觀。美國駐巴格達大使館館區在全世界外館中規模最大，負責大使館警衛的人員更是人多勢眾，包括一百六十名駐留美軍和民間保全公司的警衛約四千至五千人。

另外美國也為重返伊拉克留下伏筆。歐巴馬說，儘管雙方談判不成，未來美國還是會設法協助訓練伊拉克軍隊。隨後出訪印尼的國防部長潘尼塔向記者說，等撤軍結束後，美國將與伊拉克就協助部隊訓練一事重新開始協商。

http://news.chinatimes.com/world/110504/112011102300188.html

With Afghan control by 2014, Obama sees combat end

Robert Burns And Julie Pace, Associated Press

LISBON, Portugal – President Barack Obama on Saturday said for the first time he wants U.S. troops out of major combat in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the date he and other NATO leaders set for moving Afghans into the lead role in fighting the Taliban.

Allies had different interpretations of that target's meaning.

Capping a two-day summit of 28 NATO leaders in this Atlantic port city, Obama said that after a series of public disputes with Afghan President Hamid Karzai — and despite the likelihood of more to come — the U.S. and its NATO partners have aligned their aims for stabilizing the country with Karzai's eagerness to assume full control.

"My goal is to make sure that by 2014 we have transitioned, Afghans are in the lead and it is a goal to make sure that we are not still engaged in combat operations of the sort we're involved in now," Obama told a closing news conference.

For some U.S. allies, 2014 is more than a goal when it comes to shifting their troops from a combat role.

"There will not be British troops in large numbers and they won't be in a combat role" by 2015, British Prime Minister David Cameron said. But he added, however, Britain has no intention of abandoning Afghanistan any time soon.

"We may be helping to train their army, we may still be delivering a lot of aid, in effect, because we don't want this country to go back to being a lawless space where the terrorists can have bases," Cameron told Sky News television.

Canada is ending its combat role in 2011.

If Obama's expectation about ending the U.S. combat mission in 2014 holds, it would mark a turning point in a war now in its 10th year, a conflict that once appeared headed for success but that drifted into stalemate during George W. Bush's second term in the White House.

Obama entered office in 2009 pledging to end the Iraq war, which he opposed from the outset, in order to shift forces, resources and attention to Afghanistan — a fight he says the U.S. cannot afford to lose.

It remains far from sure, however, that even an expanding and improving Afghan army will prevail without U.S. combat support.

As the U.S. experience in Iraq showed, insurgencies can prove more resilient than predicted and newly assembled government security forces can take longer than expected to become competent and experienced enough to stand on their own.

At their annual gathering, NATO leaders also proclaimed "a true fresh start" in relations with Russia. They agreed to construct a missile defense over Europe, signed a long-term partnership accord with Afghanistan and expressed hope that the U.S. Senate would act quickly to ratify a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia that some Republicans oppose.

Before returning to Washington, Obama met with European Union leaders. They released a statement on cooperation across the Atlantic to create jobs, avoid protectionist trade policies, and promote innovation and investment.

Afghanistan and its struggle against the Taliban dominated the NATO summit, which came just weeks before Obama is to receive an internal review of U.S. war strategy. The report is expected to conclude that despite slower-than-expected progress against the Taliban, the current approach is largely on track.

Last December, Obama ordered an extra 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, hoping to regain momentum from a resurgent Taliban, the radical Islamist group that harbored Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants prior to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York and Washington.

The U.S. has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan; other countries have about 40,000.

Many European countries see the U.S. as overemphasizing the value of military force in Afghanistan. They eagerly embraced Saturday's agreement to begin handing off security responsibility in early 2011, with a full transition targeted for the end of 2014.

"Here in Lisbon we have launched the process by which the Afghan people will become masters in their own house," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark said after allied leaders reached a consensus on the handover date.

"We will make it a reality, starting early next year," he added.

The allies appear not to have lined up a schedule for troop reductions to coincide with the phased turnover of security control to Afghan forces. But they do seem to agree that after this year the main military focus should be on training Afghans.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday in Chile that only a "fraction" of the current allied forces in Afghanistan are likely to remain past 2014. They probably will function as trainers and advisers instead of fighting, he said.

U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, gave the allied leaders a private briefing on how he foresees the transition to Afghan control unfolding, district by district and province by province, starting in 2011. In its public statement, NATO did not reveal the names of the first provinces expected to be transferred to Afghan control.

Karzai has aired a long list of grievances against NATO in recent years, including excessive killing of civilians and what he called U.S. efforts to undermine his re-election campaign last year. He predicted the transition will succeed "because I found today a strong commitment by the international community. This will be matched by the people of Afghanistan."

The NATO leaders, after agreeing on Friday to build jointly with the U.S. a missile shield to protect Europe, later invited Russia to become part of that effort.

After the formal NATO-Russian conference, Obama met for 15 to 20 minutes with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a private room at the conference site with only a translator present, according to the White House.

"It was not formal, it wasn't planned, but the two leaders have developed a very strong rapport," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for communications, told reporters aboard Air Force One during the return flight to Washington. He said the president "wanted to make sure ... he got some time alone" with the Russian leader.

Earlier, the NATO allies in private made their pitch to Medvedev for cooperation on a missile shield, but the Russian leader stopped short of accepting in full. He agreed to work with NATO on an assessment of missile threats, which Fogh Rasmussen said would enable both sides to get a better technical grip on what it would take to counter the most troubling missile threats.

Medvedev appeared less than impressed with the NATO venture.

"It's quite evident that the Europeans themselves don't have a complete understanding how it will look, how much it will cost," the Russian leader told reporters. "But everybody understands the missile defense system needs to be comprehensive."

He added: "It should also be a full partnership. Our participation has to be a full-fledged exchange of information, or we won't take part at all."

Obama was more upbeat.

"We agreed to cooperate on missile defense, which turns a source of past tension into a source of potential cooperation against a shared threat," he said.

The summit also was notable for decisions it did not make. It stuck to the status quo, for example, on U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe. Germany and some other European allies want the U.S. to withdraw the estimated 150-200 nuclear bombs stored in five NATO countries. Allied leaders chose instead to put off any action to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in NATO strategy.

Obama said the U.S. would host the 2012 NATO summit, but did not say where.

Associated Press writers Alan Clendenning and Slobodan Lekic, and Anne Gearan in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101121/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nato_summit