President Bush envisions a long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq similar to the one in South Korea where American forces have helped keep an uneasy peace for more than 50 years, the White House said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON -- Any discussion of Iraq in Washington, or indeed across the country, today quickly arrives at the expected impasse. It's the Berlin Wall of the imagination -- no go and no exit!
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney outline their respective foreign policy visions in lengthy articles in the next issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, offering sharp contrasts on issues including the war in Iraq and climate change.
Andy Hatcher ran his first marathon seven months before being deployed to Iraq in September 2004. Losing his right leg in combat three months later could have ended his running career, but Hatcher is still going strong.
In January, when President Bush announced a surge of more than 20,000 American troops into Iraq, the aim was to give Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki more time and calm to start governing the violence-wracked nation. So far, the surge has produced higher U.S. casualties but little sign that the ineffectual Maliki government is willing or able to assert authority.
As of Wednesday, May 30, 2007, at least 3,467 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,834 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
White House hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday defended her vote against an Iraq war funding bill, saying she believes President Bush will begin withdrawing troops from Iraq soon.
The Pentagon admitted Wednesday that May has been "tough" for US forces in Iraq, with no fewer than 113 soldiers killed over the course of the month.
Turkey has reinforced its border with Iraq with large contingents of soldiers, tanks and armored personnel carriers as it urged the U.S. to crackdown on Kurkish rebel bases there and debated staging a cross-border offensive.
The half-century US military presence in South Korea may be a model for a future in which US forces play a support role in Iraq rather than a frontline combat role, the White House said Wednesday.