Obama meets Iraq’s PM and talks about Iraq’s Future
US President Barack Obama held a meeting
with Iraq’s Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki at the White House to discuss the
future and the relationship of the two countries.
In the meeting, al-Maliki assured the US
government that the country strongly condemned any interference and influence
of neighboring country Iran over Iraq. The prime minister added that he can
hold the US-trained military personnel to prevent insurgencies.
President Obama expressed his concern that
neighboring countries, such as Iran and Syria, may find an opportunity to
influence Iraq once the US troops are gone. However, the continuous reduction
of US troops from Iraq will strengthen the relationship of the two countries in
terms of trust and will motivate Iraq to go alone and managed its new found
democracy.
Almost 170,000 US military and service
personnel were in Iraq for the nearly nine-year war in the country against
alleged terrorist and to destroy Saddam Hussein’s regime. The coming of soldiers
hit a peak in 2007, in the wake of the surge as ordered by former US President
George W. Bush. Thus, US spent an estimated $US1 trillion and lost 4400 troops
in casualties.
Last August 2010, the US slowly withdrew
combat troops from Iraq. Republicans who are pro-war have welcomed the
reduction of US troop numbers in Iraq or Afghanistan. However, some Pentagon
insiders have also expressed fears over Iraq’s future without a US military
presence. General Helmick is one of the skeptical military leaders on the
complete pull-out of military soldiers, he said, ”We really don’t know what is
going to happen, but we know we’ve done everything we can for the Iraqi
security forces.”
Reports said that President Obama and Prime
Minister al-Maliki will further discuss the efforts of the two countries in
starting a new relationship and their strategic partnership. This will largely
benefit Iraq so it will be able to stand on its own feet and rebuild its
political and economic system. The pull-out of soldiers will also benefit the
US to build a trusting relationship with Iraq as an ally in the Middle East.
There is an unconfirmed report that PM al-Maliki
is supporting the Syrian government and the Assad regime. However, this is
denied by al-Maliki and said that he supports the demand for freedom and
democracy of Syrian people.
In the meeting, Obama seems to imply his
re-election motives for 2012. Obama
noted the end of Iraq war and the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq as a
promise he made as part of his election campaign. However, it seems that the
chances of Obama for re-election was very weak as US is still trying to emerge
from the deepest recession in American history.
Hopefully, the meeting will give way to a fruitful
relationship that will benefit the two countries. Below is the video of the
meeting of the two leaders documented by Associated Press.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1nJolPNpzqg
