Pentagon chief, senators spar over Iraq pullout
November 17, 2011 00:00:00
WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (AFP): Pentagon chief Leon Panetta clashed with US lawmakers Tuesday as he defended the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq next month, with the Obama administration coming under fire for the pullout.
In a charged hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Panetta was grilled by Republican "hawks" who accused Obama of abandoning Iraq for his own political gain.
And they charged he had failed to make a genuine effort to broker a deal with Baghdad to keep US troops in place.
In a testy exchange with Senator John McCain, the defense secretary sparred with the lawmaker about how the talks on a future US military mission ultimately collapsed.
"That's not how it happened," Panetta insisted.McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who pushed hard for the US troop buildup in Iraq in 2007, shot back: "It is how it happened."
Panetta voiced frustration with McCain's portrayal, saying Baghdad was not prepared to grant legal immunity to US forces and the United States could not simply decide what it wanted in Iraq -- invaded by US forces in 2003.
"This is about negotiating with a sovereign country, an independent country. This was about their needs," he said. "This is not about us telling them what we're going to do for them or what they're going to have to do."
Although the Iraqi government was ready to adopt legal protections, US officials wanted the country's parliament to ratify the safeguards but that proved too difficult, Panetta said.
"I was not about to have our troops go there... without those immunities," he said.
Panetta, however, left the door open to a future US military presence if requested by Baghdad, an apparent contradiction of previous White House statements.
"We're prepared to continue to negotiate with the Iraqis. We're prepared to try to meet whatever needs they have," he said.
McCain said the Obama administration undermined the talks because it was either unwilling or unable to propose troops numbers or missions to Iraqi leaders early in the negotiations.
