"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Iran on Sunday that the planned U.S. withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq by the end of the year should not be mistaken for a lack of commitment to democracy in the region.
In an interview from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, her last stop on a four-nation tour of the region, Clinton conceded that Iraq’s stability is not ensured.
“We know that there will be continuing stresses and threats, as we see in many of the countries that we work,” Clinton said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We know that the violence is not going to automatically end.”
But she asserted that the United States would still maintain a robust presence in Iraq.
“We are providing a support and training mission. We will be there on the ground, working with the Iraqis,” she said. “No one should miscalculate America’s resolve and commitment to helping support the Iraqi democracy. We have paid too high a price to give the Iraqis this chance.”
Pressed by multiple interviewers on the Sunday morning talk shows as to whether the withdrawal would open Iraq to greater influence from Iran, Clinton offered a warning: “Iran would be badly miscalculating if they did not look at the entire region and all of our presence in many countries in the region, both in bases [and] in training, with NATO allies, like Turkey,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-warns-iran-not-to-miscalculate-us-resolve-as-troops-leave-iraq/2011/10/23/gIQA5zDDAM_story.html
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