Does Anyone think Bush will leave Iraq sooner than later?

[umtalal]

Rumsfeld in Iraq: "In the end, he said, it will be a “uniquely Iraqi solution,” not American...the task is to step aside and get the Iraqis to dig their own ditches...He warned against allowing the Iraqis to become too dependent on the U.S. military. More independence is what’s needed, he said."

Powell: "...the insurgency will not end...These insurgents are determined to have no representative government...but increasingly the insurgency will be defeated and brought under control, if not completely defeated, by Iraqi forces that we are building up as rapidly as we can," he added.

Does this talk conclude that there is a "message" of departure?

Just wondering.

[tuvor]

1. Not as long as they're pumping 2 million barrels a day.

2,000,000 x $45 = $90,000,000.

Every day.

Where's it going? If any of it is adding to bush's wealth and/or influence, this war of his choosing ("bush's war," let's call it what it is) will not end any time soon.

Maybe I'm reading too much BartCop.

[Elwood P Dowd]

2. He will leave Iraq after

he delivers the troops a rubber duck. They didn't like the taste of that plastic turkey.

In all honesty, my cousin is over there as an engineer. He says they're building permanent bases, and we will be there forever!

[marcologico]

4. The neocon plan is definitely forever

but it might not work out that way. Likely we'll flounder on for as long as China keeps loaning us money ($1 billion per DAY) or until Dumbya is removed from office, which might come sooner than expected.

[Erika]

3. We'll get out of Iraq as soon as the corporatists have bled

them dry, and not one day sooner.

[Lexingtonian]

5. it's called "offloading" in corporatespeak

I believe the translation is: Halliburton and such get the oil field contracts, Iraq gets a puppet government, the Iraqi poor are going to keep on fighting, and the U.S. military gets a bunch of bases whose purpose is regional intimidation.

All of which sounds like a 1905-ish Big Power Game. It also sounds like Vietnam, circa 1972.

[flordehinojos]

6. Do you think Bush plans to EVER leave Iraq?

[umtalal]

7. One wonders? So I guess we have to wait 4+years for a pullout.

[ladjf]

8. He will leave just a soon as the oil "plays out".