Honduras to pull troops from Iraq

Memnoch

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1A819474-0F94-4F5A-974A-FEED44DB7881.htm

another country departs the coalition of terror in iraq...

that being said the troops from honduras weren't actually committing any aggression, but their presence was important symbolically to the american's as was the presence of spanish troops, to try and pretend that this is a "multi-national" effort, and not just bi-lateral action by the States and Britain.

This pull out is great news....

lets hope more countries follow suit...

for those who are going to say that peace keepers are needed in Iraq...

I agree, we need PEACE KEEPERS, not the aggressive occupiers that the US has been. We need a multi-national force HEADED by the UN, UNDER UN mandate, that will look to the best interests of the Iraqi's and not that of milking money to US contracters.

shotamoose

It's kind of a vicious circle, isn't it? Not enough troops to keep the peace, so violence keeps kicking off, so countries pull out troops, so even fewer troops to keep the peace ...

Memnoch

Originally posted by shotamoose
It's kind of a vicious circle, isn't it? Not enough troops to keep the peace, so violence keeps kicking off, so countries pull out troops, so even fewer troops to keep the peace ...

the problem is that the US troops aren't keeping the peace... they are sieging cities and murdering civillians.... all the while Bush refuses to let the UN take charge..

if its really about keeping the peace and restoring democracy to iraq then why doesn't the US let the UN take charge?

because its not about keeping the peace.. its about exploitation and making as much money out of Iraq as possible, via oil and reconstruction.

spongebob

The US (taxpayer) will never make a penny from Iraq. Haliburton will as will the mercenaries.

Thats lots of federale dollars going south to texas and the carolinas in an election year.

M

Memnoch

Originally posted by Muck
The US (taxpayer) will never make a penny from Iraq. Haliburton will as will the mercenaries.

Thats lots of federale dollars going south to texas and the carolinas in an election year.

M

yes I didn't mean the actual people or the tax payer. But these companies, arms manufacturers, oil barons, mercenry for hire companies are making a LOT of money, reconstruction companies

and as you quite rightly pointed out, flowing into the south to texas, carolina's etc in an election year

Memnoch

i'm surprised that near the BBC nor CNN have picked up on this story....

also it looks like Thailand is threatening to withdray its contingent of 400 troops stationed in iraq

MeatProduct

That's great news. I'm hoping Italy might make the same move soon, if so that would be very significant. Any idea what the chances are of that happening?

Nick

Ping Chow Chi

The Dominican Republic has decided to bring back its troops as well. I think it is significant that they (along with Honduras) worked under the spanish troops.

There is a concern that Poland will not renew their troops when their origanal commitment finishes (in september). I think some countries who sent troops after the end of the war may have second thoughts now, as the situation is probably a lot different from what they believed it was going to be.

The numbers that some of the countries have in Iraq are tiny though, to be honest most of them appear to be there just to up the number of countries in the allience more than anything else. I am sure America and the UK can more than make up the shortfall in the numbers.

On a related note, US Senator Chuck Hagel has called for the draft to be brought back, but I can not see that happening.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3644565.stm

shotamoose

Originally posted by Memnoch
the problem is that the US troops aren't keeping the peace... they are sieging cities and murdering civillians....

And they're doing that because they can't keep the peace.

if its really about keeping the peace and restoring democracy to iraq then why doesn't the US let the UN take charge?

I never said it was about restoring democracy. They just lack the basic numbers of troops to ensure that people don't go around shooting each other and setting off bombs. They need about twice as many as they've got.

because its not about keeping the peace.. its about exploitation and making as much money out of Iraq as possible, via oil and reconstruction.

That might well have been their intention. But the money Halliburton and friends are making has mostly been transferred directly from the US.