Iraqi SA = Secruity Agreement.... or Separation Agreement
I have floated this theory around the office here in Iraq a bit and I think I have come up with a pretty solid argument. Right now the Security Agreement has mandated that we are out of cities, which we are, and that we are on the road to leaving Iraq. However, the understanding of the Security Agreement on our side is a bit hazy.
The security agreement is kind of like a separation agreement. Iraq and the U.S. have been married for going on 7 years now, and the relationship has hit a crossroads. Iraq wants a divorce. And like many divorces, a separation agreement is first enacted. During this separation you are supposed to be moving out of the house that you occupied for all of those years. You divide the property, figure out who gets the kids and what type of support you have to pay the other. We (US) should be doing that, however, we aren’t. We are being told to aggressively partner with our Iraqi counterparts. Senior leaders are trying to keep their foot in the door as to not want this relationship to end.
Tell me…. If you are in the middle of a divorce, do you try and “aggressively partner” with your ex? Only if you are drunk or stupid. If you are in the middle of a divorce, you are trying to move on with your life. You want to be independent, regardless of how the ex feels. Sound familiar?
The GoI does not want us around anymore. They have made that publically known, yet we continue to push. The divorce date has been set…31Dec11, but we haven’t even moved out of the house yet.
Like a divorce, this can go one of two ways. Either we agree to move on and maintain a friendship, or we try and “aggressively partner” and screw up any enduring friendship we would hope to have. Either way, they will get half our stuff and we still have to move out.
The Iraqi’s are sovereign, regardless of our definition of how WE think things should go. It’s their show and it is time for us to move out.
I recently read the article by Jenkins entitled “The Unchangeable War”, Nov ’70. I replaced the word Vietnam with Iraq, and saw some eerie similarities.
Time to come home. We did our duty. Senior leaders need to let go and allow the Iraqis to run the show. If they need our help, they will let us know. So far…. they haven’t called.
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