The president of the General Staff of the U.S. military, Admiral Mike Mullen to Baghdad on Thursday, warning Iraqi leaders that they must begin serious discussions if they want to keep U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the scheduled date for their withdrawal by the end of this year.
Said Mullen, who was speaking before talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that the United States intends to withdraw the rest of the troops numbering about 47 thousand soldiers from Iraq by the end of 2011. He said that any decision to change, so check to Iraq.
Mullen said to reporters aboard the plane that flew him to Baghdad, "if they want leadership and the Iraqi people ... We must change that I begin this dialogue in earnest."
Mullen's trip to Iraq just two weeks after a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who put pressure on the Iraqi government to take a decision on its need for U.S. troops to stay.
U.S. officials said they expect to expedite the evacuation of remaining U.S. forces in Iraq late summer or autumn so that they can evacuate the entire force by the end of the year unless the agreement is concluded to extend the U.S. military presence in Iraq.
Gen. Lloyd Austin, who commands U.S. troops in Iraq, told reporters earlier this month that there is a critical point beyond which U.S. troops stay in Iraq or sent back as soon as costly or difficult than it should.
The American taxpayers find it difficult to digest extend the U.S. military presence in Iraq in a war that is unpopular opposed by President Barack Obama, especially since the United States has intervened in Libya and continue to face difficulties in front of the Taliban in Afghanistan
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