Agreement Reached on Troop Withdrawal in Iraq
Finally, after a year of negotiations, a pact has been reached regarding a timetable for American troop presence in Iraq. The agreement was agreed upon Sunday by President al-Maliki and his cabinet. Now the deal must make it through Iraqi parliament this week to be considered binding. Still, this is a major benchmark in the process and the pact is expected to pass. It establishes that all American troops will be out of the country by the end of 2011. In addition to this, it puts new laws into effect holding the troops more accountable for their actions by Iraqi courts and creating a phased drawback plan. It will be interesting to see if violence levels continue to rise now that an agreement has been reached, in addition to the first actions of newly-elected President Barack Obama following his inauguration.
Dennis Gallagher
