An Iraqi parliamentarian told a congressional committee June 4 that as many as 70% of Iraqis want the US military to leave their country.
When pressed by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who opposes the war, Iraqi lawmaker Nadeem Al-Jaberi said, "The majority of the people of Iraq are with the withdrawal. … Perhaps even about 70 percent."
Nadeem Al-Jaberi and Khalaf Al-Ulayyan appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, chaired by Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA), to testify about their opposition to the Bush administration's proposed US-Iraq Security Agreement, which would authorize the US to maintain a major military presence in Iraq for an unspecified period of time.
The Bush administration aims to replace the UN mandate authorizing an international force in Iraq (now almost entirely US military and private contractors) with the security agreement. The UN mandate expires at the end of 2008.
US critics of the agreement accuse the Bush administration of attempting to "tie the hands" of a future administration with an Iraq occupation treaty, and Democrats have vowed to block it.
Al-Jaberi added that the US presence in Iraq is perceived as heavy-handed and imperialistic. He cited the massive US diplomatic compound in Baghdad. "I mean why do we need 3,000 employees in an embassy in Iraq if we consider it as a diplomatic mission like any other diplomatic mission? From the principle of reciprocity, would it be appropriate for Iraqis to establish a 3,000 employee embassy in Washington?"
Al-Ulayyan added his critique of the entire invasion. "I would prefer if it didn't happen," he told Congress, "because it led to the destruction of the country. The U.S. got rid of one person. It put in hundreds of persons that are worse than Saddam Hussein. Unfortunately, now Iran is going into Iraq, and this is under the umbrella of the United States."
Delahunt also produced a letter handed to him by the Iraqi parliamentarians signed by 31 Iraqi lawmakers from 10 different parties rejecting the security agreement. The letter insists that there will be no such agreement without a clear timetable for US troop withdrawal. "[W]e wish to inform you," it reads, "that the majority of Iraqi representatives strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, agricultural, investment or political agreement with the United States that is not linked to clear mechanisms that obligate the occupying American military forces to fully withdraw from Iraq, in accordance with a declared timetable and without leaving behind any military bases, soldiers or hired fighters."
