BUSH ADMITS TO WANTING U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ FOR MANY YEARS

President George W. Bush on Sunday said he would seek a plan to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for "many years," but not establish permanent military bases.

Once again Bush is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

How do you keep troops in Iraq and not have them living in permanent military bases?

What does Bush want the troops to do? Live in pup tents in the desert?

Bush apparently assumes everyone is as dumb as his sycophants at FOX NEWS who buy hook, line and sinker everything that comes out of his pie hole.

From the day the Iraq war started, Bush, Cheney and the evil cabal inside the Bush White House have used the U.S. military like pawns in a chess game.

The Bush White House has tried to hold down spending for veterans returning from Iraq with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) by saying it is not a mental illness.

There are also reports on my blog http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ of a growing epidemic of bacterial infections U.S. troops are bringing back to the United States which the media conveniently has swept under the rug.

Almost 4,000 U.S. troops have been KILLED in Iraq, including five on Saturday, and there are close to 30,000 wounded veterans from the Iraq War who are not receiving the proper care at the woefully understaffed and under-equipped military hospitals in the United States.

The so-called "surge" is IMPLODING as Sunni brigades, who were friendly to U.S. forces, have gone on strike because the police chief in Diyala, Province Iraq is corrupt.

Headless bodies are continuing to be found in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.

The Iraqi infrastructure is in chaos and there is very little fresh water and electricity.

Angelina Jolie, the superstar actress, visited Baghdad this past week (see reports on my blog http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ with YouTube videos) as a UN representative trying to get to the root of the spiraling out of control Iraqi refugee problem that has displaced millions of Iraqi citizens since the U.S. invaded and occupied Iraq.

There are now reports more Iraqis are leaving Iraq than Iraqis returning to Iraq.

And to add to the growing mess in Iraq, there is now a move to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the puppet PM who was put up for the job by the United States government. Al-Maliki's government is totally worthless and all confidence in his rule has been lost by warring members of Iraqi tribes.

In short, Iraq is a total mess and President Bush apparently has no clue as to what to do except to say he wants U.S. troops in Iraq for an eternity.

Easy for Bush to say. After January 21 of 2009, Bush will be resting on his derriere in Crawford, Texas while the mess he has left in Iraq will be up to the next President of the United States to try and fix.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, Chicago, editor of CORKSPHERE, http://corksphere.blogspot.com/, the ONLY place in the United States you can find the REAL truth about what is happening in Iraq and a veteran of the United States Army Combat Engineers.

US defense secretary on surprise visit to Iraq

Bush admits seeking military presence in Iraq for ‘years’ but pledges not to establish permanent bases.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=24267

BAGHDAD - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday for talks with top US military commanders and Iraqi leaders to assess progress on the security and political fronts.

Gates, on his seventh trip to Iraq, will meet the head of US armed forces in the country, General David Petraeus, to discuss prospects for a possible drawdown of American troops.

"I will obviously be interested in hearing General Petraeus about his evaluation, where he stands and what more work he feels he needs to do before he is ready to come back with his recommendations," he told reporters travelling with him on the plane from Germany to Iraq.
Gates, who was last in Iraq in December, is due to give his recommendations to the US Congress in April about troop numbers in Iraq, where the military currently has a force of about 160,000.

About 20,000 are expected to go home by July.

In Baghdad, Gates will also meet Iraqi leaders to discuss progress on the political front, including the adoption of legislation such as a controversial reconciliation law which allows members of Saddam Hussein's former Baath party to return to public life.

He arrived in Iraq shortly before the one-year anniversary of a US troop surge designed to improve security in Baghdad, although the country continues to battle a deadly insurgency.

Underscoring the continued violence, 23 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack in a marketplace in a village in central Iraq around the time of Gates's arrival.

The frequency of attacks on US troops in the Iraqi capital has picked up noticeably in the past weeks, with 13 killed so far this month.

Last month 40 soldiers died, almost double the number killed in December and on a par with casualty figures recorded in October and November.

A total of 3,957 have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to a tally based on the website www.icasualties.org.

In an interview earlier Sunday, US President George W. Bush acknowledged the United States would seek a military presence in Iraq for "years" but pledged he would not establish permanent bases.

Bush brushed aside concerns expressed by critics that a Status of Forces Agreement Washington is discussing with the Baghdad government would commit future US presidents to a long-term deployment in Iraq.

"We won't have permanent bases," Bush told Fox New television.

Last week, Gates said the United States would make no commitments to the defence of Iraq in the status of forces agreement.

Gates had previously said the agreement, which is expected to be discussed by the two sides at a meeting later this month, would not provide for permanent bases in Iraq or establish US force levels.

The opposition Democratic Party candidates for the presidency have promised to rapidly withdraw remaining US forces from Iraq, but may find their margin of manoeuvre limited by any prior agreement.

Gates said last week it would be difficult to persuade Iraq to accept even a short extension of the UN resolution to allow a new US administration to negotiate the status of forces agreement.

"They don't want permanent bases either. They are interested in asserting their sovereignty," he said.