State Dept. to Field Army in Iraq

The United States is slated to remove all troops from Iraq by 2011. Currently there is not a large dialogue regarding what the U.S. presence will look like when the troops are pulled, but it is an issue worth examining and will likely become a hot topic as the withdrawl date draws nearer. This is what the picture looks like now:

"Can diplomats field their own army? The State Department is laying plans to do precisely that in Iraq, in an unprecedented experiment that U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky.

In little more than a year, State Department contractors in Iraq could be driving armored vehicles, flying aircraft, operating surveillance systems, even retrieving casualties if there are violent incidents and disposing of unexploded ordnance.

Under the terms of a 2008 status of forces agreement, all U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, but they'll leave behind a sizable American civilian presence, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest in the world, and five consulate-like "Enduring Presence Posts" in the Iraqi hinterlands."

Read the entire article at Mcclatchydc.com