{"id":200872,"date":"2020-01-15T08:07:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T08:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=200872"},"modified":"2020-01-18T07:00:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T07:00:34","slug":"us-to-iraq-vote-all-you-want-were-not-leaving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=200872","title":{"rendered":"US to Iraq: \u2018Vote All You Want, We\u2019re Not Leaving!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ron Paul \u2013 LewRockwell.com Jan 14, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n

President Trump\u2019s decision earlier this month to assassinate Iran\u2019s top military general on Iraqi soil \u2013 over the objection of the Iraqi government \u2013 has damaged the US relationship with its \u201cally\u201d Iraq and set the region on the brink of war. Iran\u2019s measured response \u2013 a few missiles fired on an Iraqi base after advance warning was given \u2013 is the only reason the US is not mired in another Middle East war.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump said his decision to assassinate Gen. Qassim Soleimani was intended to prevent a war, not start a war. But no one in his right mind would think that killing another country\u2019s top military leader would not leave that country annoyed, to say the least. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY) said the Trump Administration\u2019s briefing to Congress on its evidence to back up claims that Soleimani was about to launch attacks against the US was among the worst briefings they\u2019d ever attended.<\/span><\/p>\n

After initially claiming that Soleimani had to be taken out immediately because of \u201cimminent\u201d attacks he was launching against the US, Trump Administration officials including Secretary of State Pompeo and Defense Secretary Esper have been busy walking back those claims. Esper claimed over the weekend that he had not seen the intelligence suggesting an attack on US embassies was in the works. If the Secretary of Defense did not seen the intelligence, then who did?<\/span><\/p>\n

No doubt the Iraqi leadership recognized these kinds of deceptions: the same kinds of lies were used to push the US into attacking their own country in 2003. So it should not have come as a big surprise that the Iraqi government met last week and voted that all foreign military personnel should leave Iraqi soil.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then a funny thing happened when the Iraqi prime minister attempted to communicate to the US government the will of the Iraqi people through their democratically-elected officials. On Thursday Iraqi Prime Minister Mahdi phoned Pompeo to urgently request that Washington enact a US troop \u201cwithdrawal mechanism\u201d in Iraq. American troops are in Iraq by invitation of the Iraqi government and the Iraqi government had just voted to revoke that invitation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The State Department responded with a statement titled \u201cThe US Continued Partnership with Iraq,\u201d in which it essentially said that the US would not abide by the request of its Iraqi partners because the US military is a \u201cforce for good\u201d in the Middle East and that as such it is \u201cour right\u201d to maintain \u201cappropriate force posture\u201d in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

The US invaded Iraq based on Bush Administration lies and a million Iraqis died as a result. Later, President Obama ramped up the drone program and also backed al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists to overthrow the secular Syrian government. Obama also attacked Libya based on lies, leaving the country totally destroyed. Trump is assassinating foreign officials and threatening destruction of Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the State Department calls that a \u201cforce for good\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States can be a true force for good, however. End the military occupation of the Middle East, end foreign military aid, stop using the CIA to overthrow governments. Allow Americans to travel and do business in any country they wish. Lead by example and demonstrate how free markets and peace benefit all. A \u201cforce for good\u201d means not forcing others to bow to your will.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Prime Minister Mahdi requested that the U.S. initiate the \u201cwithdrawal mechanism\u201d of its troops from Iraq, the State Dept responded by saying that it couldn\u2019t comply because, essentially, the U.S. military was \u201ca force for good\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Iraq"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=200872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200873,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200872\/revisions\/200873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=200872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=200872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=200872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}