Cut and Run? Not So Fast...

[Nbadan]

November 15, 2006
Get Out Now? Not So Fast, Experts Say
By MICHAEL R. GORDON

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — One of the most resonant arguments in the debate over Iraq holds that the United States can move forward by pulling its troops back, as part of a phased withdrawal. If American troops begin to leave and the remaining forces assume a more limited role, the argument holds, it will galvanize the Iraqi government to assume more responsibility for securing and rebuilding Iraq.

This is the case now being argued by many Democrats, most notably Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who asserts that the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq should begin within four to six months.

But this argument is being challenged by a number of military officers, experts and former generals, including some who have been among the most vehement critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq policies.

Anthony C. Zinni, the former head of the United States Central Command and one of the retired generals who called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, argued that any substantial reduction of American forces over the next several months would be more likely to accelerate the slide to civil war than stop it.

Ny Times

Even if it takes a couple of years to clear everyone out, at least the message is clear to Iraq leaders, "Get your together cause pretty soon, we're outta here..." Who knows for sure what the response will be, but at least there will be a deadline. There is already a mock civil-war happening over there. There's nothing our troop presence is going to do to quell it now.

[ChumpDumper]

Didn't McCain just call for more troops? What a cluster .

Get Rummy out of there ASAP so the generals won't be afraid to talk anymore.

[boutons_]

We have to disengage as quickly as possible, but not so fast as to cause more deaths than could be avoided with a slower disengagement.

What rate of disengagement is that? I'm sure nobody has a clue.

I used to support more troops, but now I think the civil war is more out of control of the US military than it ever was.

The Iraqi govt is still-born, ineffectual, and the Iraqi army/police are so in name, it appears.

do dubya and the Repugs even have an tiny idea of the humanitarian and security nightmare they have dumped on the world?

The neo-cons and hawks are saying "It ain't our fault, it would have worked but they (Repugs, rummy, etc) did it wrong".

The guility-as-sin Repugs will say "The Dems forced a disengagement, the DEMS lost Iraq".

The Repugs refused to take any responsiblity for 9/11 and they will certainly refuse all responsibility for losing Iraq.

[Nbadan]

General Abizaid Smacks Down McCain’s Plan To Send More U.S. Troops To Iraq...

"Today at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, CentCom commander Gen. John Abizaid rejected McCain’s calls for increased U.S. troop levels in Iraq, saying that he “met with every divisional commander, Gen. Casey, the core commander, Gen. Dempsey” and asked them if bringing “in more American troops now, add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq and they all said ‘no.’”

Think Progress