But all that awaits him, right now, he's gearing up for more spin, planning to speak to a cative audience at Fort Bragg this week. But first comes the big meet-up. Margaret Talev and Viola Gienger (Bloomberg News) explain, "President Barack Obama is focusing on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by year's end, even as his administration continues talks behind the scenes about the future American role there."
Whether they get more troops as 'trainers' -- and whether they do so in 2011 or 2012 -- the occupation of Iraq by the United States continues.
Despite the fact that Iraqis want the US out.
And not just the average Iraqi but the pawns the US installed.
The White House is about to waste $500 million to 'train' Iraqi police -- 'training' that's been going on for eight years and already cost billions -- and the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior doesn't even want it.
This was again addressed by Congress last week in Wednesday's the House Oversight and Government Reform's National Security Subcommittee hearing:
US House Rep Raul Labrador: Mr. Bowen, right now the police development program is the administration's largest foreign aid project for Iraq going forward. And there's some evidence that the Iraqis don't even want this program. So have you or your staff asked the Iraqi police forces if they need the $500 million a year program that the Obama administration is planning to spend on the police development program?
SIGIR Stuart Bowen: Yes, Mr. Labrador, we have and we reported on that in our last quarterly report noting that the senior official at the Ministry of the Interior, Senior Deputy Minister al-Assadi said "he didn't see any real benefit from the police development program." I addressed that with him when I was in Iraq a couple of weeks ago and I asked him, "Did you mean what you said?" And his response was, "Well we welcome any support that the American government will provide us; however, my statements as quoted in your recent quarterly are still posted on my website."
US House Rep Raul Labrador: So why is the administration still spending $500 million a year to provide this program?
SIGIR Stuart Bowen: There's a belief that security continues to be a challenge in Iraq, a well founded belief, I might add, given the events of this week. Killings of pilgrims again, on the way to Najaf, on the eve of Ashura. The focus though on trying to address those problems has been a widely scattered, high level training program involving about 150 police trainers who, as we've seen again this week, are going to have a very difficult time moving about the country.
Not only does the Ministry of the Interior not want it, but there is no Minister of Interior. The cabinet remains headless. In a year's time, Nouri al-Maliki has been unable/unwilling to name a head. But the White House is about to fork over $500 million to a ministry that doesn't even have leadership?
As Barack tries to paint a victory lap, grasp that US forces leaving Iraq right now are doing so after the US government made the decision to pay off tribal sheiks to protect the departing. The US-led, illegal war has turned Iraq into a country of orphans and widows. It's driven the US nto crippling economic debt.
But watch Barack try to make that victory lap as he attempts to pretend that the US occupation of Iraq ends.
