WP: Early Pullout Unlikely In Iraq (A01)

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081000289_pf.html

Early Pullout Unlikely In Iraq
Military Official Says Withdrawal At Least a Year Off

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 11, 2005; A01



BAGHDAD, Aug. 10 -- Iraq's leaders and military will be unable to lead the fight against insurgents until next summer at the earliest, a top U.S. military official said Wednesday, trying to temper any hopes that a full-scale American troop withdrawal was imminent as Iraq moves toward elections scheduled for December.

Both Americans and Iraqis need "to start thinking about and talking about what it's really going to be like in Iraq after elections," said the military official, who spoke in an interview on the condition he not be named. "I think the important point is there's not going to be a fundamental change."

The official stressed that it was "important to calibrate expectations post-elections. I've been saying to folks: You're still going to have an insurgency, you're still going to have a dilapidated infrastructure, you're still going to have decades of developmental problems both on the economic and the political side."

U.S. military officials in Iraq said last month that it might be possible to withdraw 20,000 to 30,000 of the 138,000 American troops by next spring if Iraqi civilian leaders managed to meet deadlines for drafting a new constitution and holding elections.

[reformedrepub]

1. Doesnt Matter

They will pull the Troops out before the '06 elections, They will be under so much pressure from Repubs running for office they wont have any choice, unless of course we get "attacked" again....

[Strelnikov_]

2. Stand, Sit, Lay Down, Roll Over, Beg

Wonder what tomorrows story will be. That we will be pulling out and building up at the same time.

[grytpype]

3. Why can't anyone say this on the record?

Who is this anonymous "official" who is giving this essential information? Why isn't Rumsfeld saying this?

Read the whole article. The war is such a complete and total failure on every level.

And note that Jufari or whatever his name is, the Iraqi "PM," is saying Rummy's tales of arms being smuggled across the border are "exaggerated." They can't get anything straight.

[bluestateguy]

4. They just want people to think the troops are coming home...

before the election. They will turn off the light at the end of the tunnel after the elections, and may even announce more troops are needed.

[wli]

5. just in time for the midterm (s)elections?

[rodeodance]

6. Early Pullout Unlikely In Iraq

surprize surprize. wonder if they are talking about this right now in Crawford?



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081000289_pf.html

Early Pullout Unlikely In Iraq

Military Official Says Withdrawal At Least a Year Off

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 11, 2005; A01

BAGHDAD, Aug. 10 -- Iraq's leaders and military will be unable to lead the fight against insurgents until next summer at the earliest, a top U.S. military official said Wednesday, trying to temper any hopes that a full-scale American troop withdrawal was imminent as Iraq moves toward elections scheduled for December.

Both Americans and Iraqis need "to start thinking about and talking about what it's really going to be like in Iraq after elections," said the military official, who spoke in an interview on the condition he not be named. "I think the important point is there's not going to be a fundamental change."

The official stressed that it was "important to calibrate expectations post-elections. I've been saying to folks: You're still going to have an insurgency, you're still going to have a dilapidated infrastructure, you're still going to have decades of developmental problems both on the economic and the political side."

U.S. military officials in Iraq said last month that it might be possible to withdraw 20,000 to 30,000 of the 138,000 American troops by next spring if Iraqi civilian leaders managed to meet deadlines for drafting a new constitution and holding elections........

[Voltaire99]

8. It's equally the Democratic Party's fault.

In polls the public is signaling its willingness by a wide margin to be done with this mistaken, failed war.

Yet while leaders like Hillary and Biden facilitate the war party, there is no effective political opposition in Washington. They are, at best, collaborators; at worst, they have allowed the war to go on past the point of hope in exchange for what they estimate will be advantages in the next election.

Who could respect such creatures? The party needs to rid itself of DINOs, and a good place to start is with the pro-war faction.

[bluestateguy]

7. PNAC vetoed a pullout

http://www.newamericancentury.org/troops-20050713.htm

[alfredo]

9. How can we control the oil without troops there

to protect it? There will only be a pull out when and if the RNC demands it.