Members of the "Gulf Cooperation Council" all bordering the Persian Gulf and Iran
Little more than ten days ago President Obama announced the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of the year. After requesting the Iraqi government to reconsider keeping some thousands of American troops in the country beyond the December 31 deadline was rejected by the Iraqi's, the president followed what was essentially the Bush administrations decision to withdraw all troops in Iraq.
Now some days later we get this from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "We will have a robust continuing presence through out the region, which is proof of our ongoing commitment to Iraq and the future of the region, which holds such promise and should be freed from outside interference to continue on a pathway to democracy." [1]
Well so much for withdrawal. Supposedly, "With an eye on the threat of a belligerent Iran," [2] the U.S. is to expand military ties with the "Gulf Cooperation Council" including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman," [3] (all dictatorships that fall under the hegemony of the U.S.). Interestingly, Turkey a NATO member, the regions only democracy with a Muslim majority and a freely elected government in Ankara is NOT included in this "new security architecture" arrangement, perhaps because Turkey, which borders Iran (though not on the Persian Gulf) is following an independent path of U.S. policy, has good relations and trade with Iran, is not threatened by Iran and doesn't see Iran initiating aggression in the region.
Despite Iran's autocratic regime led by Ayatollah Kamenei and its President Ahmadinejad, himself fraudulently re-elected in 2009 and its pariah status coming particularly from Israel and the U.S., it has to be realized that Iran has not initiated any wars or pre-emptively attacked any country in hundreds of years.
That certainly can't be said of the U.S. or Israel, the two belligerents that have initiated pre-emptive war in the region, whose policies have wrought greater instability to the region and have contributed nothing to what Clinton referred to as a "pathway to democracy" freed from outside interference", whether in Iraq or any of the dictatorships in the "Gulf Cooperation Council".
Our military presence on the ground in the Middle East, the disastrous and unnecessary war in Iraq, our provocative armada operating in the Persian Gulf and now with the proposed expansion of our involvement with the autocratic members of the "Gulf Cooperation Council" will only heighten tensions and create greater instability in the region.
Only our complete military withdrawal, including the CIA and private security contractors aka mercenaries, closing our military bases in Arab countries, along with keeping a tight leash on Israel to deter that country from pre-emptively attacking Iran could bring real stability to the region.
This latest ploy by the Obama administration to beef up our military presence in the region is just an attempt to mollify critics on his right, (with the Iraq withdrawal imminent).
It's just another unnecessary poke in the eye to Iran.
