Current event #6

Status Uncertain
The uncertainty over in the Middle East is looming over this presidential election. We have worked for the past eight months to plan to leave Iraq. The presidential election here and over in Iraq is placing even more pressure to finalize the plan and have a fall back plan in case everything does not go according to plan. Rival Shiites are rebelling even more nowadays with the new plan up for ratification. Shiite leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, know very well that Iraq needs continued support from U.S. troops but they also know that taking a public stand in favor of a continued American presence could cost them heavily at the polls, and in Tehran. The United Nation’s plan suggests that all troops will be pulled out of Iraq by January 1st 2009. Iraq officials are wary about this idea and hope to ask for more time for help from our troops. As it stands, the "status of forces" agreement appears reasonable. It calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraqi cities by July and to leave the country by the end of 2011. But it makes the timeline conditional on the readiness of Iraqi forces to take over and allows for an extension of the final withdrawal date if the Iraqi government requests it. The next president may be better positioned to seal an accord with Iraq, but he should not have to inherit a crisis over the status of American forces there. I believe America should follow the plan that we have now but, try to please the Iraqi government while we are in their country. We started this “war” we need to end it responsibly.