Not leaving, Just moving

Today, April 26, 2009, the New York Times reported on the progress of troop withdrawals from Iraqi cities. As everyone knows the US started to remove combat troops from major Iraqi cities back in January. The cities are turned over to the Iraqi security forces; the troops are not leaving Iraq just the cities. Back during the troop surge of 2007 the United States set up nearly 100 small bases in the center of major cities, so that the soldiers could get closer to the people of the city. These are the main bases that are going to be closed and turned over the Iraq security forces that will most likely not use the majority of them. Several larger bases will not close down, such as base camp victory which is on the edge of the city of Baghdad but has been decided that it lays outside the city limits. There will also be a small group of combat troops that will be stationed at the US embassy as security. This won’t violate the terms of the agreement as long as their vehicles stay on embassy grounds and they don’t interfere with the work of the Iraqi security forces. Right now the US is in talks with the Iraqi government to get extensions on troop withdrawal from some of the northern cities, specifically Mosul where there has been an increase in insurgent activity in recent days. They hope to have the decision of the Iraqi leaders by Monday. As in accordance with the agreement between the two countries the US will have to have all of its combat troops removed from within Iraqi cities by June 30, unless they receive any exceptions from the Iraqi government.