London Telegraph: 50,000 troops to Remain in Iraq on Permanent Bases

and Republicans delete prohibition against building permanent bases.

From the London Telegraph:

"US 'planning to keep 50,000 troops in Iraq for many years'
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 12/06/2006)

America plans to retain a garrison of 50,000 troops, one tenth of its entire army, in Iraq for years to come, according to US media reports.

The revelation came as George W Bush summoned his top political, military and intelligence aides to a summit on Iraq's future today at the presidential retreat at Camp David."

snip:"Military analysts have noted that significant American spending is already being committed to permanent bases in Iraq. They say Iraq's military may soon be able to fight by itself, but it cannot feed or supply itself and it has no air force to speak of."

link to full article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/12/wirq12.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/06/12/ixnews.html
______________

From Reuters:

"Iraq war bill deletes US military base prohibition
Fri Jun 9, 2006 4:59pm ET

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country, a lawmaker and congressional aides said on Friday."

snip:"As originally passed by the House of Representatives, the Pentagon would have been prohibited from spending any of the funds for entering into a military basing rights agreement with Iraq. "

snip:""The perception that the U.S. intends to occupy Iraq indefinitely is fueling the insurgency and making our troops more vulnerable," said Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat who won House approval of her amendment on permanent bases "The House and Senate went on record opposing permanent bases, but now the Republicans are trying to sneak them back in the middle of the night," Lee said "

snip:"Senate aides said Republican staffers removed the provisions from the bills before House and Senate negotiators convened this week in a late-night work session to write a compromise spending bill.

Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, tried to reinsert the language, but it was opposed by Rep. Jim Kolbe, the Arizona Republican responsible for foreign affairs portions of the spending bill.

Next week, the House is scheduled to have a wide-ranging debate about the Iraq war at which time Democrats are likely to raise this issue again."

link to full article:

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-06-09T205941Z_01_N09199214_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-CONGRESS-FUNDING.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2335026

@ the same meeting bush & company said, "Oil, Oil, Oil, & Oil."

perm. base = stealing oil

Welcome to the real reason we are in Iraq.

Here's a link to another discussion of the subject:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1405224

:eyes:

The US went over there to stay, and that wasn't what the administration sold the public. It wasn't just a short little war like Gulf War I or Grenada.

Mission accomplished. :sarcasm:

Great article. K&R.

If the map shown on Democracy Now was accurate, the bases will be clustered exclusively in and around the southern oil fields and refineries. Will the garrisons switch to Beau Gest Legionnaire's forage caps?

The majority of Dems will vote for funding for this.