How do we evacuate our soldiers from Iraq with the minimal amount of casualties?

[NNN0LHI]

Do we call a cease fire? An armistice? Any ideas?

Don

[leftchick]

1. same way they fly the big wigs in and out of there

helicopters and airplanes. Starting now.

[KansDem]

2. Put every vehicle in "R" and step on the gas...

Just a reverse of how we got in there...

[Alpharetta]

3. I've posted on this topic a couple of times

They'll be shooting at us on the way out.

On the way in, we bypassed engaging their army because we didn't want to be slowed down by processing prisoners. We let them go home with their guns. Everyone with a grudge will be shooting at us on the way out.

On the way in, it was combat soldiers first. On the way out, it has to be all the support people first, the cooks, the contractors, the hospitals, the truckers, etc.

So that means on the way out, the combat soldiers will be holding unstaffed bases and won't have as quick access to medical facilities, water, food, etc.

Plus the factions will be shooting their way into our bases even as we leave. They'll want to claim them first. We'll be lucky to get out of a base before the firefights happen over it.

The logistics are incredible. We were a lot safer getting in than we'll be as we leave.

It will be chaos.

[hlthe2b]

10. The factions WANT us out...

So, why do we assume they will inflict as much carnage as possible on our leaving troops?

Is this an assumption that needs to be examined a bit? :shrug:

[Alpharetta]

14. 100,000 killed in Iraq won't go unforgiven. Plus we're loaded

My concern is as we withdraw the civil war will begin in earnest.

While these militias may be more focused on each other, they also would like to be first occupant of our bases. They'll and look for whatever equipment and material of value we leave behind. They'll also prize the secure locations.

When we withdraw, the civil war could escalate because of the power vacuum and because of the potential for capturing and controlling larger regions quickly.

With that escalation of violence will come the prevalance of weapons on the street. Many of the weapons buried or hidden will be retrieved. With 100,000 dead, our convoys could see some payback on the way out. You wonder what convoys might get stopped for whatever valuables and weapons they may have. We can't expect every convoy to be an armored division. Some may be trucks with just one Humvee trying to cover them. Rich people walking through a crime area and everybody knows they're carrying valuables.

I didn't expect they'd greet us with hugs and roses. I don't expect they'll bid us adieu that way either.

[hlthe2b]

17. the aftermath of a clusterf**k will not be pretty...

no matter how much "liptstick" the administration elects to provide to the effort...

If only we had learned from history.... The true Lawrence of Arabia wrote extensively on Iraq and its challenges to occupation, in a way that can only be thought prophetic at this point... :shrug:

[donsu]

4. give them white flags and have them fly and drive out

Iraqis will cheer and wave goodbye

or leave them there and continue counting the dead

[Pierre.Suave]

5. Easy

by doing it as soon as posssible.

[SoCalDem]

6. We just stop sending "new" troops, and start sending the ones there, home

Turn over the 'resources" to the Iraqis and skedaddle..

the difficulty is in the knowing that the weapons we leave behind, WILL end up in the hands of the insurgency we created.

the instant we stepped in, we sowed the seeds of defeat..We need to stop watering that crop, and see if it dies on its own, once we are gone.

Iraq has OIL..they need to sell it to someone. My guess is that Iraq will need outside help to refurbish, and they will inite foreigners in to help. It won;t be US, but when they realize that they do need help, things will calm down.

We won;t like the outcome, but then we created the chaos that led to it, so we have no room to complain

[sui generis]

15. attrition by recall or attrition by IED -

I support recall.

We have to drop any delusions we have of gracefully escaping the consequences of an illegal war declared on a sovereign country over a series of known lies, falsehoods and deceptions for the purpose of acquiring a large footprint of U.S. military bases and U.S. military airports in the region. And oil. In that order. We've clearly failed at all three, waging a credible war, securing a strategic position, and paying for it with their oil.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Rush them back to Baghdad airport

and fly them out immediately.

[sui generis]

8. rooftop of the embassy?

oh wait that was saigon. oh wait didn't we already call Iraq to be another vietnam before our first soldier ever set foot in there?

How long ago was that?

I just want to keep rubbing their faces in it. We told you so. Any fourth grader could have told them this was the only possible outcome.

So why did the military apparatus leadership blow it so profoundly? Delusion. The worst kind of delusion - the kind where you force everyone else to go along with you and brand anyone who disagrees with you as unpatriotic and unAmerican.

Our soldiers are heroes not for being in Iraq. Their heroism comes from honoring their call to duty, however misguided and poorly planned and flawfully executed our "strategy" in Iraq was, if there ever was a strategy.

[Dhalgren]

9. We begin an orderly withdrawal to our fortified bases and begin

shipping out all non-essential personnel at the same time. Once all of our remaining forces are in protective areas, we start choppering them out. We do this all without any fanfare or notice. There is no way to ensure order in the tail-end of this thing, but as Rummy would say: "Will there be chaos? Yes, I think so. Can we prevent chaos? No, probably not. Look, it is chaotic there already. It remains to be seen if chaos can become more chaotic - whether it is a superlative or not? I don't know."

Man, I think I just channeled the old Messenger of Death! :scared:

[bananas]

11. Hire mercs to cover us. nt

[wtmusic]

12. whose casualties?

If you're including Iraqi casualties in the mix, Wes Clark's solution is the only viable one, and it's gonna take time.

[USMA Dem]

13. C-130 rollin' down the strip....

easiest way....

[leftofthedial]

16. air planes

gradually withdraw into airports

ought to take about a week.