Iraqi parliament defense committee calls to review security agreement with US

[MikeWB]

Holy shit! US will get a boot out of Iraq now! We spent over a TRILLION dollars and TENS OF THOUSANDS of lives and for what?!? This is the most incompetent admin the history of the US!



The Iraqi parliament's Security and Defense Committee has called for a review of their agreement with Washington on security, a committee member told RT, citing fears of an "international conflict on Iraq's territory."
"We and the US-led coalition have an agreement in the field of security, which has a number of not only positive, but also negative points," Hamid Mutlaq, an Iraqi Parliamentarian and member of the Defense and Security Committee said.

"We have demanded to review some of those points, for them to comply with Iraq's interests and the region as a whole in light of the changed situation," he added, saying that the "majority of Iraqi politicians and MPs fear that an international conflict may develop on the territory of Iraq, as a result of which blood of its people will be spilt."

"Iraq is already suffering from conflicts," Mutlaq told RT.

Should the terms of the agreement on security not be overhauled, it may be annulled, Hamid Mutlaq told Sputnik. "The [Iraqi] government and the parliament need to review [their] ... security agreement with the US, because Washington is not serious about its implementation. We will demand its cancellation," Mutlaq told the news agency.


"Iraq will be defended only by its sons, but Turkey will withdraw [its troops], since the land of Iraq is sacred, and its sovereignty is a red line. We have a right to give this issue an international character and to demand from the UN Security Council the withdrawal of Turkish troops," he said.

Recent media reports of Turkish troops deploying to a base near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul created a stir in Baghdad. Although Turkey maintains that the troops were part of a training mission coordinated with the Iraqi officials, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider Abadi said on Sunday that if Ankara did not withdraw its troops within 48 hours, Baghdad would take the matter to the UN Security Council.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter added fuel to the fire when he recently stated that the US military would deploy a new special operations force to Iraq.

"Iraq does not need foreign ground forces and the Iraqi government is committed not to allow the presence of any ground force on Iraqi land," Abadi replied in a statement.

Hadi Amiri, the head of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militias, the Badr Organization, warned that any US base in Iraq would be then considered a "target," AP reported.

There are currently some 3,500 US troops in Iraq on a training and support mission designed to help Iraqi forces fight Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The Iraqi parliament's Security and Defense committee plans to ask for cooperation with Russia in carrying out airstrikes against IS, another member of the committee, Iskander Watut, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"Soon, a meeting [of the committee] with Prime Minister Haider Abadi will be held, at which we will propose cooperating with Russia in carrying out airstrikes against IS and in the fight against terrorism in Iraq," he stated.

[yankeedoodle]

Holy shit! US will get a boot out of Iraq now! We spent over a TRILLION dollars and TENS OF THOUSANDS of lives and for what?!?

"Boot[ed] out"?  No way, more like more boots on the ground.

And, "We spent...for what?!?"  That just laid the groundwork to spend more and more and MORE.

The US is to send some 10,000 troops to Iraq to provide support for a 90,000-strong force from the Gulf states, a leading Iraqi opposition MP has warned. The politician said the plan was announced to the Iraqi government during a visit by US Senator John McCain. 

https://www.rt.com/news/325477-arab-army-iraq-plan/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome

[MikeWB]

YD, that's from McCain. It's complete nonsense. Saudis can't even defeat Houthis in Yemen and Houthis have conquered several of their towns in the south of  KSA. McCain is just talking out of his ass.

[yankeedoodle]

Saudis can't even defeat Houthis in Yemen and Houthis have conquered several of their towns in the south of  KSA.

Saudis are using mercenaries in Yemen, according to this report about a bunch of them getting killed.

Dogs of War: British mercenary reported killed in Yemen
https://www.rt.com/uk/325594-british-mercenary-killed-yemen/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome

Provisionally named as Colonel Arthur Kingston by local media, a British national reportedly died alongside an Australian and a group of Colombian mercenaries known to have been operating against the Shia Houthi militias.
The individual, who is thought have previously served with the British Army, was killed in heavy fighting with Shia rebels in the town of Taiz in the south-west of the country.

An Australian named Phillip Streetman and ten Colombian mercenaries are also said to have died.

The Daily Mail reported that due to a lack of British consular presence in the area the Foreign Office has been unable to confirm the death of a British citizen.

Al-Madser news, a regional Arabic channel, has reported that a total of fifteen soldiers of fortune may have been killed, including a Mexican and a Frenchman.

Venezuela's Telesur networks says up to 1,500 Latin American freebooters employed by the notorious Blackwater private military firm, now known as Academi, are fighting in the pay of Saudi Arabia against the Shia rebels known at Houthis.

Reports of Colombians operating in the area date as far back as late November when the New York Times (NYT) reported the Sunni Gulf States, some of which are locked into a proxy war with Shia Iran, are using South American's to fight the vicious civil war in Yemen.

The NYT reported the United Arab Emirates has deployed 450 troops – including Panamanian, Chilean and Salvadoran hired guns – to fight a remote counter-insurgency.

"Mercenaries are an attractive option for rich countries who wish to wage war yet whose citizens may not want to fight," Sean McFate, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and expert on private military personnel, told the NYT at the time.

Britain has a long history of mercenary activity, often led by maverick former officers.

One of the most high-profile is former Scots Guard and SAS officer Simon Mann who in 2004 was jailed for life in Equatorial Guinea for his involvement in the so-called Wonga Coup. He was released in 2009.

Still a believer in the usefulness of private military forces, he told the Telegraph in June that in order to defeat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) mercenaries could prove useful.

"I would form a kind of Arab Legion, just like the British did in the old days," Mann said. "With the right training, probably a minimum of two months, you can turn pretty much anyone into good troops, as long as you have good officers and good NCOs," he said.

[MikeWB]

YD, didn't hear about that Brit getting killed.

Saudis are paying Sudan to fight in Yemen too. So this McCain talk about Saudis providing 100k troups for Syria is a fantasy.

Sudan gets $2.2B for joining Saudi Arabia, Qatar in Yemen war
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/11/sudan-saudi-arabia-war-yemen-houthi-economy.html