Iraq will ask the US to keep its troops in the country beyond the 2011 withdrawal deadline set by US President Barack Obama, Leon Panetta, the White House's pick to lead the Pentagon, said. "It's clear to me that Iraq is considering the possibility of making a request for some kind of (troop) presence to remain there," Panetta said, adding that he had "every confidence" the request would be "forthcoming at some point." The outgoing CIA chief told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that the US should agree once the request is made. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/mi...022257677.html How long are we going to continue the charade? WE are the ones who want to stay, not the Iraqis. I'm not a psychic, but I'm pretty sure if the Iraqi authorities had the slightest interest in us staying after the looming deadline they would've asked already. What's with the obsession with staying in Iraq anyways? Even if the WMDs existed they were stolen ages ago, China has the oil, the Sunni insurgents have been paid off, the Shiites have what they want, and Iran has established ties in the new government. We've already failed every single conceivable objective in this war, so why bother?