US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is on an unannounced visit to Iraq, where he is expected to meet with senior military commanders. Gates, who was recently reinstated as the secretary of defense by US President-elect Barack Obama, arrived at the Balad airbase in northern Baghdad on Saturday to discuss the drawdown of US troops. The visit comes as the US prepares to cut its troops levels and begin to pull forces out of Iraqi cities, stationing its forces in military bases and camps, In accordance with a security pact signed between Washington and Baghdad. The pact mandates that US combat forces withdraw from Iraqi cities by next June and from the whole country by the end of 2011.
Earlier in the day Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dismissed a suggestion by government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh that US troops may need to stay in the country for 10 years despite the two sides' agreement. "What was announced about the Iraqi forces needing 10 years in order to be ready is only his [Dabbagh's] personal point of view and it doesn't represent the opinion of the Iraqi government," Maliki said, AP reported. Before flying to Baghdad from the Bahraini capital of Manama, Gates had urged Arab nations to help fight the spread of violent extremism by funding and training Afghan security forces and reaching out more aggressively to the fledgling Afghan government.
He also urged Persian Gulf Arab leaders to set aside old hostilities inflamed in the Saddam era and forge diplomatic ties with Iraq.
how do you get over Recent Historical tensions like this one and help a Iraq and Afghanistan, esp. when your country is financially unstable? More financially solvent and wealthier countries are pulling out and then telling the Gulf to 'help their Arab brothers". This doesnt seem completely right to me....
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