Democrats’ Timetable Allows U.S. War in Sunni Region to Go On

[Disturbed]

Democrats’ Timetable Allows U.S. War in Sunni Region to Go On-by Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON -

The language on a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq voted out of the House-Senate conference committee this week contains large loopholes that would apparently allow U.S. troops to continue carrying out military operations in Iraq’s Sunni heartland indefinitely.The plan, coming from the Democratic majority in Congress, makes an exemption from a 180-day timetable for completion of “redeployment” of U.S. troops from Iraq to allow “targeted special actions limited in duration and scope to killing or capturing members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations of global reach.”

The al-Qaeda exemption, along with a second exemption allowing U.S. forces to re-enter Iraq to protect those remaining behind to train and equip Iraqi security forces and to protect other U.S. military forces, appears to approve the presence in Iraq of tens of thousands of U.S. occupation troops for many years to come.
The large loopholes in the Democratic withdrawal plan come against the background of the failure of the U.S. war against the insurgency — including al-Qaeda — in Anbar and other Sunni provinces and the emergence of a major war within the Sunni insurgency between non-jihadi resistance groups and al-Qaeda.

The Sunni resistance organisations represent a clear alternative to an endless U.S. occupation of hostile Sunni provinces that has driven many activists into the arms of al-Qaeda..

More here:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/26/769/