University students demonstrate against a U.S.-Iraqi security pact currently under negotiation, in Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008. The deal would allow U.S. troops to remain here until at least the end of 2011 and give Iraq a role in managing U.S. military operations. The banner read is Arabic ' invaders out '(AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
U.S. Lists Services It'll Cut Off If Iraq Rejects Pact On Troops -- McClatchy Washington
BAGHDAD — Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, informed Iraqi officials last week that if their country doesn't agree to a new agreement governing American forces in Iraq, it would lose $6.3 billion in aid for construction, security forces and economic activity and another $10 billion a year in foreign military sales.
The warning was spelled out in a three-page list that was shown to McClatchy on Monday. Iraqi officials consider the threat serious and worry that the impasse over the so-called status of forces agreement could lead to a crisis in Iraq. Without a new agreement or a renewed United Nations mandate, the U.S. military presence would become an illegal occupation under international law.
Odierno's spokesman, Lt. Col. James Hutton, said that the list "provided information as a part of our normal engagements with many in the government of Iraq."
If no new mandate or agreement is in place on Jan. 1, the U.S. would stop sharing intelligence with the Iraqi government and would cease to provide air traffic control, air defense, SWAT team training or advisers in government ministries, according to the document. The list also says that there'd be no "disposition of U.S.-held Iraqi convicts" without a security agreement.
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My Comment: The U.S. is playing hardball .... but it appears that a decision has been made in the Iraqi Government that they will not sign such an agreement ..... and in fact have no desire to sign any agreement even though it would mean the loss of U.S. financial and military assistance. There is now a strong possibility of U.S. forces leaving Iraq in the beginning of 2009.