Iraq Declares Victory Over U.S.

Good. Now we can leave. Maybe Iraq will come up with a Marshall Plan for us?

NYTimes

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has taken to calling the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq’s cities by next Tuesday a “great victory,” a repulsion of foreign occupiers he compares to the rebellion against British troops in 1920.

The day itself has been declared a national holiday, though it is not yet clear whether Iraq will hold the “feast and festivals” he recently promised.

Too bad they couldn'ta held off a few days. Iraq and the U.S. coulda shared Independence Days.

More than 150 American bases or outposts have been closed in Iraqi cities this year — 85 percent of the total, an Iraqi official said — including some that commanders considered crucial.

The Americans asked to keep open an outpost in Sadr City, the Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad that once served as the base of Shiite militias, only to be rebuffed.

“This is one we wanted,” Brig. Gen. John M. Murray said. “The Iraqi government said ‘no,’ so now we are leaving.”

Far from a celebration, the deadline has provoked uncertainty and even dread among average Iraqis, underscoring the potential problems that Mr. Maliki could face if bloodshed intensifies.

Even some Iraqi officers are worried. Brig. Gen. Mahmoud Muhsen, a commander with the First Division of the Iraqi National Police, grimly predicted that sectarian violence could return. He warned that control of Iraq’s borders remained ineffective, allowing more foreign fighters to enter.

“They are taking away all the equipment that the Americans provide,” he said, “and with the agenda of countries neighboring Iraq, it is a recipe for disaster.”

You want disaster? We'll show you disaster. We fucked your country over goin' in, we fuck it over while we're there, we fuck it over goin' out. You ignorant little brown people weren't properly grateful for your liberation by white imperialists, which is to say that you didn't give us all your oil even though we spent our military and all our money. Woulda been cheaper just to buy the shit, but Bush wasn't that smart. Disaster? The neocons invented it. Join the club.

“When the Americans get out of city centers, a big war will start,” a woman who identified herself as Um Hussan said amid the wreckage of a bombing on Monday outside her house in the Ur neighborhood of Baghdad. It has been months, she added, since she last saw American forces there.

“We ask God to help us for what is coming,” she said

Sorry, lady. God The Dick told Bush to invade your ass in the first place. You see how that worked out. Maybe you'll have better luck.

In related news:

Iraq opens fields; Exxon, Shell seek foothold

“Iraq is the big prize in the region,” said Raja Kiwan, a Dubai-based analyst at consultants PFC Energy. “It is one of the only remaining areas that provide the level of upside for companies who want to access reserves.”

Ah, fuck. Big Oil is about to have interests that need defending again. We ain't goin' nowhere. Army and Marine 'reserves', prepare to be 'accessed' for forty more years.