State Department to Assume Massive Mission in Iraq as ...

[Cowboy]

Something about this just makes no sense to me.

• 
  
  AP
  Dec. 8, 2011: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a speech at the Conference on Internet Freedom in The Hague, Netherlands.

U.S. troops are on track to leave Iraq before the end of December, but the U.S. involvement there is anything but over -- meaning local resistance to Americans, and the security challenges that come with it, will continue.
In place of the military, the State Department will assume a new role of unprecedented scale, overseeing a massive diplomatic mission through a network of fortified, self-sufficient installations.
After the troops have left, the U.S. presence in Iraq-which peaked at 170,000-will number between 15,000 and 16,000, including federal employees and private contractors.
Federal officials are busily signing hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for on-site health care, food, protection and other needs, so that American personnel can steer clear of a perilous security situation on Iraq's city streets.
The State Department will hire more than 5,000 private security contractors for armed details and has contracted with a private service to ferry U.S. personnel in helicopters and planes.
The State Department will command four major diplomatic centers and seven other facilities, a total of 11 sites around the country. The tab will be around $3.8 billion for the first year, far above the operating cost of any other U.S. diplomatic mission-but far lower than the more than $40 billion in U.S. spending budgeted for fiscal 2011 in Iraq.
With the new mission, U.S. officials hope to redefine a strategic relationship that has rested for nearly nine years almost solely on war. They say they will work with Iraq's central bankers, justice officials and agriculture experts, while trying to improve its police and armed forces.
Click here to continue reading at The Wall Street Journal.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ission-in-iraq-as-troops-leave/#ixzz1g9Ih8K6U​

 

[squerly]

Something about this just makes no sense to me.

• 

You're wondering how it's possible that Hillary is ugler today and she was 3 years ago?
​

 

[Doc]

Seems like a slimy way to to get around the promise to get our troops out of Iraq. Our troops are leaving but the State Dept now assumes a massive role that the type of which they have never undertaken before. This is not good. Plus, it will cost us billions more to set up a new agency in Iraq. Spend spend spend. :nono:

 

[tiredretired]

Billery doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Cowboy]

Seems like a slimy way to to get around the promise to get our troops out of Iraq. Our troops are leaving but the State Dept now assumes a massive role that the type of which they have never undertaken before. This is not good. Plus, it will cost us billions more to set up a new agency in Iraq. Spend spend spend. :nono:

Yup and if you think thats bad Doc take a look at this. One hell of a way to cut the deficit.

Pentagon Wins $5 Billion Budget Increase

Measure would also cut President Barack Obama's request for Afghanistan's security forces

December 9, 2011 RSS Feed Print
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional negotiators have tentatively settled on a $5 billion increase for the Pentagon's non-war budget as a mammoth spending bill is taking shape behind closed doors on Capitol Hill.
The measure would also cut President Barack Obama's request for Afghanistan's security forces, as well as his request for special vehicles that are resistant to roadside bombs.
The measure would also provide $115 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in addition to $518 billion for the Pentagon's core budget. War costs are dropping almost $43 billion from last year as U.S. troops leave Iraq.
[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]
The budget decisions are contained in congressional documents obtained by the Associated Press.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/12/09/pentagon-wins-5-billion-budget-increase

 

[joec]

I sometimes wonder if you guy pay attention at all. Now tell me what country, be it friend for foe have we left once we are there? We have troops and state department people in every country we have ever gotten a foot hold in. It is the nature of an Empire and one of the reasons the US is often despised.

 

[Kane]

And to think once long ago all the liberals screamed that we were just going into Iraq for the oil.

If only we were ... them some of this would make sense.
.