Obama Takes a First Step Reducing Troops in Iraq -- Many More Are Needed

By Phyllis Bennis, Foreign Policy in Focus. Posted February 28, 2009.

Mercenaries and Contractors

Ending the U.S. occupation means ending all U.S. funding for the giant contractors -- Dyncorp, Bechtel, Blackwater -- that serve as out-sourced private unaccountable components of the U.S. military. The contractor companies -- and the mercenaries they hire -- were part of what led to Abu Ghraib. (Blackwater's recent name change to "Xe" should not allow its role in killing Iraqi civilians to be forgotten.) Even as some troops may be withdrawn, we will need to mobilize for congressional hearings, independent investigations, and more on the human rights violations and misuse of taxpayer funds by the war profiteers who run these companies. President Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo prison shows his awareness of severity of the crimes committed there. Ending the funding of the contractors who carried out so many of those crimes should be a logical next step.

U.S. Military Bases

We've heard how long it will likely take to evacuate each of the 50+ U.S. military bases in Iraq (6 weeks for the small ones, 18 months for the biggest) but we haven't heard any indication, let alone a promise, that they will actually be turned over to the Iraqis. The issue of bases places Iraq at the centerpiece of the broad global movement challenging the network of U.S. military bases all over the world. Opposition to the impact of those bases -- environmental, social and women's rights, economic and more -- is rising in countries as diverse as Korea, Italy, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan and more. In fact in some countries governments are joining with civil society to reject Washington's global crusade. Kyrgyzstan decided to close the U.S. air base there, indicating they prefer Russian bribes to U.S. warplanes. (That decision may present the Obama administration with the unsavory prospect of renewing the U.S. alliance with Uzbekistan, whose government is characterized by some of the most egregious human rights violations in the world.) Ecuador has recently passed a new constitution prohibiting the presence of foreign military bases on their soil, and is in the process of ending its hosting of the U.S. airbase at Manta.

As the Obama administration seeks new ways to cut military spending, closing the 50+ Iraqi bases, particularly the five mega-bases becomes an urgent necessity. And the giant embassy-on-steroids that the Bush administration built to house up to 5,000 U.S. diplomats and officials should be closed down as a relic of an illegal war launched to maintain control of the country, people and resources of Iraq.

Ending Occupation?

Certainly almost three more years of acknowledged occupation is way too long. That's almost half again as long as the U.S. occupation of Iraq has been going today. But even so, if this 19-month partial withdrawal really was a first step towards a complete end of the Iraq war and occupation, if this really meant that the troops in Iraq would be brought home instead of redeployed to another failing war in Afghanistan, if this really meant that President Obama's promise that "I will end the war" was about to be made real -- then 19 months wouldn't be so bad.

Then, at last, we could begin making good on our real debt to the people of Iraq. Make good on the U.S. obligations for compensation (money to Iraqis themselves, not to overpaid U.S. contractors), for reparations (including for the years of society-destroying economic sanctions), for support for Iraqi-led international help in peacekeeping and in demilitarizing Iraq after so many years of occupation and war.

So far, though, we're not seeing any of that. So far, there are too many "buts." We know there is no military solution in Iraq -- and continuing an "occupation lite" to muscle out competitors in oil contracts, or to maintain a power-expansion presence in the region, or to create the illusion of "peace with honor" -- none of these things justify continuing an illegal U.S. occupation. Pulling out any troops from Iraq is a good thing. But so far, our job hasn't ended -- to mobilize, to pressure, to continue to educate and advocate and agitate for a real end to the war. We have a lot of work to do.

See more stories tagged with: iraq, obama, withdrawal

Phyllis Bennis is director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, a senior analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus, and a fellow at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from World! Sign up now »