Removing Blackwater from Iraq's security equation opens the door to other contractors -- though filling the void left by Blackwater could come at a much higher price. The suspension also could result in more attacks against security contractors by insurgents aiming to increase tensions, further destabilize the security environment in Baghdad and complicate the political process.
Does anyone actually think this is a good idea? I know for a fact, the Iraqis don't think it is....and about that Iranian involvement 'thing.' Does anyone believe that Iran is actually ready to 'step in' at a moment's notice if the USA leaves? Ah, yeah.
Does anyone think Iran will have the trouble the USA has? Ah, no.
Does anyone actually believe there is a 'real reason' for confronting Iran given the fact the USA has never had control over the circumstances in Baghdad and Iraq AND Iran is using whatever means available to prevent a war at it's borders?
NO, the USA has absolutely no viable reason to invade Iran. NONE ! The nuclear issue is a separate issue completely and is more akin to a North Korean problem than an Iraq problem, but the Republicans will use every reason in the world to try to convince the American public Iran is the problem when in fact this illegal war has ALWAYS been the problem.
Example below:
Baghdad security guard by day, insurgent by night (click here)
3 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AFP) — By day Ahmed works for an Iraqi security company. By night the stocky 30-year-old fights the "American occupier" in his Baghdad neighbourhood.
Ahmed admits he is a member of what the US military terms "Special Groups" -- secret Shiite cells it says wage acts of "terrorism" in Iraq with the financial and military backing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards units.
"Our mission," Ahmed tells AFP during a discreet interview in a Baghdad hotel car park: "Kill the Americans, as many Americans as possible."
He says he is proud to have been chosen, along with other fighters from his district of Bayaa, to do a one-month course on explosives and guerrilla tactics.
"I still don't know where I'll be sent. This will be communicated to me at the last minute," he says while fidgeting nervously with a string of black prayer beads.
"The best go to Lebanon, to be trained by Hezbollah, or to Iran, in camps controlled by the Quds Force," the covert operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards.
"Others go to camps in the (mainly Shiite) south of Iraq," where they are trained by Iraqi, Lebanese and Iranian instructors.
According to Ahmed, whose claims could not be independently verified, most members of the Special Groups are drawn from Iraq's main Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army of radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"Our chiefs are in regular contact with the leadership" of the Mahdi Army but "each acts independently," he says.
The US military has identified the Special Groups, which they say are fighting a proxy war for Iran, as a long-term threat. Tehran continually denies it is training or funding militants to fight in Iraq.
Son of a Shiite father and a Sunni mother, Ahmed says he is himself "not very religious."...
3 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AFP) — By day Ahmed works for an Iraqi security company. By night the stocky 30-year-old fights the "American occupier" in his Baghdad neighbourhood.
Ahmed admits he is a member of what the US military terms "Special Groups" -- secret Shiite cells it says wage acts of "terrorism" in Iraq with the financial and military backing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards units.
"Our mission," Ahmed tells AFP during a discreet interview in a Baghdad hotel car park: "Kill the Americans, as many Americans as possible."
He says he is proud to have been chosen, along with other fighters from his district of Bayaa, to do a one-month course on explosives and guerrilla tactics.
"I still don't know where I'll be sent. This will be communicated to me at the last minute," he says while fidgeting nervously with a string of black prayer beads.
"The best go to Lebanon, to be trained by Hezbollah, or to Iran, in camps controlled by the Quds Force," the covert operations arm of the Revolutionary Guards.
"Others go to camps in the (mainly Shiite) south of Iraq," where they are trained by Iraqi, Lebanese and Iranian instructors.
According to Ahmed, whose claims could not be independently verified, most members of the Special Groups are drawn from Iraq's main Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army of radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"Our chiefs are in regular contact with the leadership" of the Mahdi Army but "each acts independently," he says.
The US military has identified the Special Groups, which they say are fighting a proxy war for Iran, as a long-term threat. Tehran continually denies it is training or funding militants to fight in Iraq.
Son of a Shiite father and a Sunni mother, Ahmed says he is himself "not very religious."...
