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Biden's Iraq visit more flash than substance, say critics
December 1, 2011
With U.S. military forces withdrawing from Iraq on schedule, Vice President Joe Biden visited the fledgling Democracy to tell the world that the United States and Iraq are beginning a new phase of a partnership that reflects Iraq’s needs and includes a robust security relationship.
Biden arrived in Baghdad late on Tuesday on a surprise visit with the aim of meeting with top Iraqi officials to discuss the U. S. troop withdrawal and relations between the two countries after the pullout of U.S. forces by the end of this year.
Unfortunately, the statements made by Biden and Iraqi officials appeared more flash and less substance, according to several counterterrorism sources.
Despite the Obama Administration's "rose-colored glasses" assessment of Iraq's future as a democratic haven in a sea of radical Islamist despots, political thugs and monarchs, Iraq appears open to befriending its neighbor Iran as was demonstrated in mid-November.
BIDEN AND AL-MALIKI MEET
Biden and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki delivered remarks before and after Wednesday's meeting of the U.S.-Iraq Higher Coordinating Committee, which issued a joint statement on the nations’ historic opportunity to build a relationship through security, trade, education and culture, law enforcement, environment and energy, according to Cheryl Pellerin of the American Forces Press Service..
The committee is part of the Strategic Framework Agreement, signed during the Bush Administration in 2008 to affirm both nations’ desire to establish long-term bonds of cooperation and friendship.
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December 1, 2011
With U.S. military forces withdrawing from Iraq on schedule, Vice President Joe Biden visited the fledgling Democracy to tell the world that the United States and Iraq are beginning a new phase of a partnership that reflects Iraq’s needs and includes a robust security relationship.
Biden arrived in Baghdad late on Tuesday on a surprise visit with the aim of meeting with top Iraqi officials to discuss the U. S. troop withdrawal and relations between the two countries after the pullout of U.S. forces by the end of this year.
Unfortunately, the statements made by Biden and Iraqi officials appeared more flash and less substance, according to several counterterrorism sources.
Despite the Obama Administration's "rose-colored glasses" assessment of Iraq's future as a democratic haven in a sea of radical Islamist despots, political thugs and monarchs, Iraq appears open to befriending its neighbor Iran as was demonstrated in mid-November.
BIDEN AND AL-MALIKI MEET
Biden and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki delivered remarks before and after Wednesday's meeting of the U.S.-Iraq Higher Coordinating Committee, which issued a joint statement on the nations’ historic opportunity to build a relationship through security, trade, education and culture, law enforcement, environment and energy, according to Cheryl Pellerin of the American Forces Press Service..
The committee is part of the Strategic Framework Agreement, signed during the Bush Administration in 2008 to affirm both nations’ desire to establish long-term bonds of cooperation and friendship.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
