If you pay attention, you see the US government preparing for the extension all around you. For example, you see it in the continued deployments. Such as when WBKO reports this month on a send-off ceremony for the almost 600 Kentucky National Guard members scehduled to deploy to Iraq for a year. Or when Angela Deines (Capital-Journal) reports on a send-off ceremony for 267 members of the Kansas National Guard who are headed to Fort Hood and then onto Iraq for a year long Operation New Dawn deployment.
If you pay attention, you hear the confirmation of it in Barack Obama's silence. The American president who rode the promise of 'ending the Iraq War' to fame refuses to address the issues. He'll give a speech where he proclaims he kept his promise on ending the war -- and we're not only supposed to ignore all the recent news but also the fact that 47,000 US soldiers remain in Iraq currently. But he never addresses the ongoing talks even when various spokespersons in the administration and officials in the administration do note the talks publicly.
He just pretends that they don't exist.
That's a confirmation.
And for those who still doubt, last week Josh Rogin (Foreign Policy) interviewed Samir Sumaida'ie, Iraq's Ambassador to the US, and, asked about the extension, Sumaida'ie responsed, "
"The principle that there will be some military presence [in Iraq beyond 2011] to help train Iraqi military and police has been largely agreed upon." Just as Panetta had said, just as Ali al-Dabbagh (Nouri al-Maliki's spokesperson) had said.
Operation New Dawn, now Barack's soaking in it.
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Illustration is Isaiah's "Now he's soaking in it" from September 6, 2010.