Spencer Ackerman reports:
U.S. troops are going to be in Iraq for a very, very long time. The goal is to have them operating from positions of safety and relative comfort, as they do in Germany and Korea and Japan and other countries that were once liberated by U.S. troops. Iraq has no real air force, and there is no hope that it will have one anytime soon. At the very least, U.S. forces will be necessary to protect Iraqi airspace for a decade or more. As Eli Lake, the editor of elaketricity.com, reported in February, the Iraqi military is also “purchasing American helicopters, cargo planes and tanks equipment that typically requires a prolonged U.S. presence for maintenance and training.” For the foreseeable future, American troops will be stationed in the very heart of the Middle East, where they will serve as a sort of insurer of last resort, guarding democracy and fostering prosperity in a country that borders the worst rogue states in the region. It’s a wonderful irony that Barack Obama will deliver us the permanent bases that George W. Bush never could.
