Independent GAO report: Obama needs to clarify exit from Iraq

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2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President Barack Obama needs to clarify what he means by promising a "responsible" withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, an independent US auditor's report said Tuesday.

"The new administration has emphasized the importance of a responsible drawdown of US forces but has not yet defined this term," said the report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress.

"In further defining this strategy and revising the Joint Campaign Plan for Iraq, the administration will need to clarify what conditions need to be met to undertake this drawdown responsibly," said the GAO report.

The administration should be "prioritizing the conditions that would allow US troops to draw down" and "should also consider how the United States would respond if it does not achieve the conditions necessary for a responsible drawdown within the security agreement timetable" agreed by the United States and Iraq . . .

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hWvFhrwzPThqhZSqJdpCHtolotwA





Iraqi women hold a photographs of their loved ones who who are in the US military custody during a rally in central Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 23, 2009. Some hundred Iraqi Shiite women from Sadr City staged a rally to demand the release of their loved ones from the US military custody. The woman at left holds up three fingers on each hand indicating that three of her sons have been detained.
(AP Photo/Ahmed Alhussainey)

[BuyingThyme]

1. kcik

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2. how the United States would respond

. . . if it does not achieve the conditions necessary for a responsible drawdown within the security agreement timetable."

[No.23]

3. Interesting, isn't it?

How the pain of losing economic security here in the States...

garners a lot more attention than...

the lives that are lost in a foreign land...

because of our presence there.

Interesting, and sad.

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4. .