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Iraq
No intention to establish permanent bases in Iraq- NATO deputy commander
2008-06-01
(VOI) - Deputy commander of NATO Training Mission in Iraq, Major General Alessandro Pompegnani, on Saturday ruled out any intention for NATO to establish permanent bases in Iraq, stressing “our role is to train and upgrade the capabilities of the Iraqi forces.”

“The mission has overseen the training of 67 officers from the War (Arkan) Academy, 10 from the Civil Defense, and 100 trainees on the English language,” Pompegnani told a joint news conference held in Baghdad with Major General Hussein Jassim Dohi, deputy to the Iraqi army chief of staff. The NATO Training Mission began working in Iraq on 14 August, 2004, at request of the then Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, and were scheduled to continue training Iraqi forces from both army and police until the end of 2009.
Posted by:Fred

#9  Remember that religion always takes a back set to POLITICS. It is all political.
Posted by: newc   2008-06-01 22:05  

#8  AH: yah, Muslims can't secularize. Sunna - emulation of the self appointed "prophet" - is an inalterable foundation of Islam. Beards are worn to exact lengths, because that is what Muhammad did. Some slaves of allah even dye their beards with a red tinge, to look like the "prophet." Since the French intervention in Egypt, in 1798, there is a record of Muslims adopting Western ways only to return to strict sharia. Wherever Muslims have the numbers, they launch jihad terror. That is why we have to render them powerless, even if that means re-colonialization of their backward, mullah ridden cess pools.
Posted by: McZoid   2008-06-01 20:12  

#7  The real "Reformation" in Christian Europe was secularization and freedom of religion, which ended religious warfare there & promoted the forms of government by consent of the governed. The Islamic countries have institutionalized dictatorship & religious warfare for centuries, their way out of their mess may be the same route as Europe took, although it will look different to the ignorant.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2008-06-01 13:21  

#6  Good catch, McZoid, on NATO vs. the U.S. I don't imagine NATO is capable of staffing bases long term, based on comments made here.

I like kimchee, too, George. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-06-01 13:15  

#5  Tep Korea circa 1954 was like a damn cold Iraq with Kimchee bonus.
Posted by: George Smiley   2008-06-01 12:01  

#4  Based on first hand reports. I would expect a rather strong showing of hands from our folks in uniform if asked to volunteer for futy there; unlike the State Department stiped pants crowd...
different mind set. Selflessness vs. selfishness.
Posted by: USN,Ret. (from home)   2008-06-01 10:50  

#3  The kind of people who established permanent bases in a latrine like Korea.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-06-01 07:54  

#2  Who, exactly would want to be permanantly based in a latrine like Iraq?
Posted by: M. Murcek   2008-06-01 04:05  

#1  NATO has no such plans because basing of that nature is inconsistent with the group Charter. But Iraq Shiites have set up SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) as a means to end the wall between them and the Sunnis. If US troops leave there will be a bloodbath; if US troops stay there will be an Iranian backed bloodbath (as early as August).

Secularism arose in context of the Catholic-Protestant wars. In context of the 1400 Sunni-Shiite conflict, we allowed a pseudo democracy to polarize Iraq on religious lines, while Secularism was all but abolished. Iraq warring parties are prisoners of a rhetoric of perma-war, concluding only at the end-of-days; we are prisoners of pseudo democratic rhetoric that somehow values political islam in its inherent perversity. Muslims can go to hell.
Posted by: McZoid   2008-06-01 03:48  

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