CS Monitor: Permanent presence in Iraq unlikely

The Christian Science Monitor this morning runs a report suggesting that a permanent U.S. presence in Iraq is unlikely.

The upside: "Neither the Bush administration nor military analysts believe it's in the U.S. interest to have permanent bases in Iraq and look like the occupying country many in the Muslim world suspect it to be."

The downside: "Nevertheless, it's likely that the next administration, be it Democrat or Republican, will agree to having a substantial number of US forces there for at least some years."

Senate Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) is quoted in the piece. "This president has no power to enter into an agreement without Congress," says Sen. Durbin. "With this unpopular war and his unpopular status, he's in for a fight."

Colin Kahl, a Georgetwon professor and fellow at CNAS, adds that "Any presence like that over the long term, like a decade, is a bad idea...That will inevitably feed the narrative the jihadi movement has about our goals in the region."