Call it appeasement or call it “the situation on the ground permits it,” but if we go back to August 26, 2008, we learn that it was Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who demanded that the U.S. should leave Iraq in full by the end of 2011, and President Obama seems to be proudly obeying it.
Here is what the RedCorbit reported back in August 2008:
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Monday that all foreign troops must leave Iraq by the end of 2011. It was the Iraqi leader’s toughest public statement since the U.S. and Iraq began negotiations over a security agreement last March.
As the Chicago Tribune Reported on the same day:
Maliki’s comments appeared to be an attempt to extract further concessions from American officials, less than a week after both sides said they had agreed to remove all U.S. combat troops by the end of 2011, if the security situation remained relatively stable, but leave other American forces in place.
In other words, President Bush was ready to implement a massive draw-down of U.S. Troops through 2009-2011. However he wanted to secure the peace after 2011, but President Obama who during the campaign promised to draw down combat troops within sixteen months after taking office (meaning, a similar timeline as Bush), capitulated to Maliki and is pulling out all the troops by the end 0f 2011.
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