A U.S. General Speeds the Shift in an Iraqi City

[Sliverofhope]

A U.S. General Speeds the Shift in an Iraqi City
By DEXTER FILKINS

Published: November 18, 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 17 — An American commander is preparing to pull troops back from Ramadi, a city at the center of guerrilla activity, and turn it over to Iraqi officers, an experiment that could change the course of the occupation of Iraq.

The commander, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., of the 82nd Airborne Division, said in an interview last week that troops stationed in Ramadi might be ready to withdraw as early as January. About 18,000 Americans are stationed in Anbar Province, with several thousand of those in Ramadi, military officials said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/18/international/middleeast/18IRAQ.html?hp

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. This was via official policy

The headline makes it sound like it was his idea alone. Anyway, it sounds like a good idea.

[Dhalgren]

2. What happens when the citizens of Ramadi

set up their own government that won't play ball with the American iron-boot boys?

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. They could withdraw today

And the result would be the same, a coup and the slaughter of the local police by the "guerrillas".