U.S and Iraq Come To Agreement On Withdrawl Date For Troops

Although there's a hint here that the deal isn't totally done, it's being reported here at The Star that Iraqi and American officials have agreed to a pact that would have American troops totally withdrawn from Iraq in 2011. Here's some of the details:

Washington and Baghdad have reached a final agreement after months of talks on a pact that would require U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraq by 2011, U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Wednesday.

The bilateral pact replaces a U.N. Security Council resolution enacted after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and will give Iraq's elected government authority over the U.S. troop presence for the first time.
Iraq said it had secured the right to prosecute U.S. soldiers for serious crimes under certain circumstances, an issue both sides had long said was holding up the pact.
The agreement was submitted to Iraqi political leaders for approval, a first step toward ratifying it in the Iraqi parliament, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.

Now, I have not been an advocate of timetables and alerting our enemies as to when the U.S. would actually be out of Iraq but considering what has transpired in Iraq over the last year, I'm not as concerned as I was due to the fact that al Qaeda has pretty much all been neutered. And I don't see any way that al Qaeda in Iraq could possibly hold on until 2011.

On the other hand, I think the biggest signal this sends is to Iran. I think after another year, the biggest threat to the stability and sovereignty of Iraq will be the designs of Iran. But with the mass exodus of al Qaeda and foreign jihadists from Iraq to Afghanistan, I think the U.S. and Iraqi Army can pretty much clean up Iraq easily within the next two years.

U.S., Iraq agree pact giving U.S. troops until 2011

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Washington and Baghdad have reached a final agreement after months of talks on a pact that would require U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraq by 2011, U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Wednesday.

The bilateral pact replaces a U.N. Security Council resolution enacted after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and will give Iraq's elected government authority over the U.S. troop presence for the first time.
Iraq said it had secured the right to prosecute U.S. soldiers for serious crimes under certain circumstances, an issue both sides had long said was holding up the pact.
The agreement was submitted to Iraqi political leaders for approval, a first step toward ratifying it in the Iraqi parliament, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
In public, U.S. officials were subdued. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "Nothing is done until everything is done. Everything isn't done. The Iraqis are still talking among themselves. We are still talking to the Iraqis."
But a senior U.S. official in Washington, who asked not to be named, confirmed that the final draft had been agreed by both sides and would require U.S. troops to leave by the end of 2011, unless Iraq asks them to stay longer.
The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has long resisted committing to timetables for withdrawing from Iraq.
Dabbagh said the agreement envisions U.S. forces withdrawing from Iraqi towns and villages by the middle of next year, and withdrawing completely from the country within three years. For them to stay longer, a new pact would need to be agreed.
"The withdrawal is to be achieved in three years. In 2011, the government at that time will determine whether it needs a new pact or not, and what type of pact will depend on the challenges it faces," he told Reuters.
Either side can withdraw from the pact with a year's notice.