Kurdish politician: Obama wants to "run away from Iraq"

A Washington Post article by Leila Fadel published on line yesterday quotes Kurdish politician Mahmoud Othman, after listening to President Obama declare Tuesday that it was "time to turn the page," as saying the new administration wants to "run away from Iraq."

The newly arrived U.S. ambassador to Iraq, James F. Jeffrey, tried to reassure Iraqis in his first briefing to reporters in Baghdad last month. "The point we're trying to make ... is that we're not abandoning Iraq, and we're not really even leaving Iraq," he said.

According to the article, the perception of a mixed U.S. message has fed the uncertainty many Iraqis say they feel, as to whether the United States is staying or going.

The prophecy of Jeremiah is clear, however -- the occupiers are going to abandon the land in concession to the failure at reconstruction: "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven," (Jer 51:9).

After that, civil war, plundering, flood and drought -- "and it will never again be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah..." (Jer 50:39b-40a).

But first, the cities burn.