Iraq will ask for future defense contracts to include provision for trainers, bypassing MPs to allow some U.S. soldiers to stay past a year-end pullout deadline, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.Maliki also told reporters on July 30 that he had revived talks to purchase 36 U.S. F-16 fighter jets, rather than the originally mooted 18, in a multi-billion-dollar deal that has been on the cards for several months.
"Training missions do not need the approval of parliament," the premier told a news conference. "The government will include in agreements to purchase weapons that there should be trainers to train Iraqi forces to use these weapons."
How many trainers?
Oh, about 10,000.