"We have one overwhelming desire, the single best thing, that could happen to the United States, literally, is for you to be a free, prosperous democracy in this part of the world," the vice president told reporters before a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
US forces are a sensitive issue, however, so both sides dance around it:
Officials said they expected the issue of whether to keep some U.S. forces in Iraq beyond the Dec. 31 deadline to dominate the agenda with Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss the sensitive diplomatic issues frankly.
The departure of US forces under the current agreement in less than a year is not in Iraq's interests any more than it is in our interest, in our desire to achieve a free and prosperous Iraq. Iraqis responsible for defending Iraq understand this problem:
Under a security agreement between Washington and Baghdad, all American troops are to leave Iraq by the end of the year. However, Iraq's top military commander Gen. Babaker Shawkat Zebari, has said U.S. troops should stay until Iraq's security forces can defend its borders — which he said could take until 2020.
And why is this sensitive? Why, because of that breathing piece of garbage, three-time insurrectionist and Iranian hand puppet Moqtada al-Sadr, tanned, rested and back from studies in Iran:
But al-Maliki, under pressure from hardline Shiite Muslims, has signaled he wants American troops to leave on schedule. Last weekend, the influential and anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr returned to Iraq after nearly four years of exile in neighboring Iran, in part to insist that the U.S. "occupiers" must leave on time or face retribution among his followers "by all the means of resistance."
The struggle in Iraq is not over. It is not as intense and bloody, thankfully, but the struggle continues. Enemies still fight us. Some just not by violent means of resistanc--for now, anyway.
If Sadr steps over the line, it should be a big deal. And we should at long last take that scumbag out. Jail or a grave, whichever is appropriate.
UPDATE: Biden and Maliki didn't discuss a post-2011 US military presence and instead discussed economic ties. This seems narrowly true. It is too sensitive to discuss at a higher civilian level at this point. But I assume that talks are going on at lower levels about what capabilities the Iraqis will need from us after 2011. That can be done quietly now, with the political heat of ratifying that set of capabilities taken on only when it is necessary to get it passed by Iraq's parliament.
