Anti-US Demonstrations Growing In Iraq

More than 1,000 demonstrators occupied the central square of Mosul demanding the departure of U.S. forces, witnesses said on Monday 18 April. Officials in Mosul told the Voices of Iraq news agency that at least 1000 people gathered in the city to express frustration with the presence of U.S. military forces. The sources said the main demand was for U.S. forces to leave the country as planned and no later. Sunni tribal leaders from Anbar province were among the demonstrators. One tribal chieftain told the news agency. U.S. forces under the terms of a bilateral status of forces agreement brokered in 2008 are set to leave at the end of December. Pentagon officials said they were weighing their options beyond 2011, though U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said any extension would be up to the Iraqis. This is clear (not) treblespeak in which the hydra-headed monster of the CIA/Pentagon specialises. Supporters of anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr suggested there could be a rebel uprising if U.S. forces stay beyond December and tribal leaders in the northern province of Ninawa called recently for the departure of American forces. The U.S. State Department last week issued a travel warning for Iraq, warning ‘no part of the country was safe for Americans’, especially in the northern provinces. ‘No part’? Where are all the flower-throwing Iraqis, grateful for Bush and Cheney-style democracy? Wasn’t Isn’t it called Operation Iraqi Freedom? And what about Operation Enduring Failure Freedom - how's that one going ten years later?