U.S. plans for Iraq?

As American troops have left Iraq. One of the worlds most deadliest terrorist organizations remains in the country, as strong as ever and with plans to 'maintain a large clandestine presence in Iraq'. (and Afghanistan)
-

CIA digs in as Americans withdraw from Iraq, Afghanistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-digs-in-as-americans-withdraw-from-iraq-afghanistan/2012/02/07/gIQAFNJTxQ_story.html

Part of a plan by the Obama administration to rely on a combination of spies and Special Operations forces to protect U.S. interests in the two longtime war zones, U.S. officials said.

The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in December has moved the CIA’s emphasis there toward more traditional espionage — monitoring developments in the increasingly antagonistic government, seeking to suppress al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the country and countering the influence of Iran.

U.S. officials said that the CIA’s stations in Kabul and Baghdad will probably remain the agency’s largest overseas outposts for years, even if they shrink from record staffing levels set at the height of American efforts in those nations to fend off insurgencies and install capable governments. ("capable" here means 'puppet')
-
The hegemony continues.

and the US troops? 'Security contractors' still replacing them?


US wants to reduce the size of the Mega Embassy in Iraq.
-

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland declined comment on the article's specifics but confirmed that the United States was looking to "right-size" the enormous embassy in Baghdad.

"I think what we have here is an embassy structure that was built for a different time and that relied a lot on extensive contracting for a whole range of reasons, some of them historic, some of them security-related," Nuland told reporters.

"Our judgment now is that we can adapt that for today's Iraq, do our diplomatic business just as well and just as rigorously, but far more efficiently," she said. (I like that, "do our diplomatic business")
-
U.S. Planning to Slash Iraq Embassy Staff by Half

The expansive diplomatic operation and the $750 million embassy building, the largest of its kind in the world, were billed as necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between two countries linked by blood and mutual suspicion.

But the Americans have been frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.

To make the cuts, he said the embassy was “hiring Iraqi staff and sourcing more goods and services to the local economy.”

After the American troops departed in December, life became more difficult for the thousands of diplomats and contractors left behind. Convoys of food that had been escorted by the United States military from Kuwait were delayed at border crossings as Iraqis demanded documentation that the Americans were unaccustomed to providing.

Within days, the salad bar at the embassy dining hall ran low. Sometimes there was no sugar or Splenda for coffee. On chicken-wing night, wings were rationed at six per person. (6 wings? I'm sorry, the war is bad, but 6 wings on 'wing night'?...That's just wrong.

I'm glad the NY Times article brought to light these terrible ordeals the Military Contractors and diplomats are having to go through.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/world/middleeast/united-states-planning-to-slash-iraq-embassy-staff-by-half.html?src=mv&ref=world