Decades Later, Troops to Stay?

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/22/141613691/u-s-troops-to-leave-iraq-but-questions-remain?ft=1&f=1010 (original article/interview)

"They (troops) would help Iraqis with logistics, meaning how the Iraqis supply their troops, and also with things like Medivacs. But in recent months, the numbers have been scaled back to as low as 2,000, 3,000. So even if the U.S. kept troops in Iraq, it wasn't going to be a very large number." -Tom Bowman

"The Americans who were negotiating whether or not to keep some troops in Iraq into next year were very adamant that the Iraqis had to grant immunity to these soldiers - and this is a pretty common thing. But they wanted the Iraqis to do it very publically, they wanted them to vote on it in Parliament, and this, given the, you know, the sentiment of the Iraqi people, the wariness on the part of the Iraq people have seen so many people die over the last nine years, that just wasn't something they could sell."- Kelly McEvers

"First of all, the country's still volatile, particularly in the north with the Kurds and Arabs around the city of Kirkuk and some of those areas. So they wanted to make sure it was stable. The United States has invested a lot of blood and treasure in Iraq. The other reason is Iran. They want to make sure Iran's influence doesn't increase in the country."-Tom Bowman

Although Obama has announced that the troops will be pulled from Iraq by the end of the year, it is in talks with Iraqi officials to keep some American soldiers in Iraq to keep everything stable. American has fought a rather grueling war in Iraq and lost many many American soldiers. Our government officials want the people of Iraq to be accepting of this idea because of what they have put up with throughout the course of the war. The American troops would also help to make sure that Iran does not increase their influence in Iraq because Iraq is a rather vulnerable country. "We will continue discussions on how we might help Iraq train and equip its forces, again, just as we offer training and assistance to countries around the world." (Obama). Keeping a select number of troops in Iraq, I think, would be a good idea to help them to maintain stability as a country and strengthen their forces. With the course of the war lasting such a long span of time, it wouldn't be smart to just withdraw completely from Iraq because they are at such risk with Iran. The biggest aspect is getting the people of Iraq to agree to the idea of keeping a number of American troops in Iraq. Again, like these reporters have said, the main reason troops would stay back in Iraq is to help. The war is coming to a close, the troops will only be there to better things and help Iraq build strong branches of military forces.