Well, so much for those plans to withdraw American forces from Iraq. President Bush’s big speech at the Naval Academy “did not break new ground or present a new strategy,” the AP notes. So that means, despite the chatter beforehand, no new schedule for bringing troops home.
What Bush did say is that “as Iraqi forces become more capable the mission of our forces in Iraq will continue to change.”
We will continue to shift from providing security and conducting operations against the enemy nationwide to conducting more specialized operations targeted at the most dangerous terrorists.
We will increasingly move out of Iraqi cities, reduce the number of bases from which we operate and conduct fewer patrols and convoys.
As the Iraqi forces gain experience and the political progress advances, we will be able to decrease our troop levels in Iraq without losing our capability to defeat the terrorists.
Which says to me: kiss the “oil-spot” theory goodbye. That’s the idea, which has been gaining momentum in political circles since an August Foreign Affairs article, to use our troops to set up safe havens in Iraq, and then slowly grow them out.
But to do that, you need troops — lots of troops — to fill a city up, and patrol virtually every corner. If I’m reading between the lines of Bush’s speech right, that’s not the idea here — despite talk in the President’s “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” or “clear[ing]” out and “hold[ing]” insurgent epicenters.
Speaking of the “Strategy,” it ain’t. The document reads more like a marketing document than a focused plan for winning a war. And there are some mighty odd statements in it, as Dr. AC Wonk notes. For example, the Strategy claims that:
As of November 2005, there were more than 212,000 trained and equipped Iraqi Security Forces, compared with 96,000 in September of last year.
But “Iraq did not, however, have 96,000 trained and equipped Iraqi Security Forces… in September 2004,” the Wonk responds.
Adam Entous with Reuters obtained internal Defense Department documents in September 2004 that revealed only 8,169 had completed the full eight-week academy training. 46,176 of what are publicly called trained and equipped forces were listed privately as untrained.
Whatever the numbers, Bush’s bottom line is clear: no big changes to Iraq strategy, despite all the heavy-breathing. “Stay the course,” he repeated four times at the end of his Annapolis speech. “Our clear, hold, and build strategy is working,” add his plan.
Good Morning Folks,
Don’t be so down. We all knows President Bush has problems with the truth and quite often he ends up doing the exact opposite of what he says he will never do. The bigger the issue the bigger the “flop” and this is a “Super Sized” issue.
Remember “…we will rebuild New Orleans and pay what ever it takes. I can’t imagine an America with out a New Orleans.” or an Iraqi War classic “…al Sar has killed Americans and we will do all that is necessary to bring him to justice.” or the all time classic “I’m a uniter not a divider.“
On that theory, the troops in Iraq should be packing their bags. The “Freedom Birds” are gassing up as I write.
ALLONS,
Byrob Skinner
Thanks for posting that C-Low. What you said in the beginning about freeing up troops to do constant disruption ops is absolutely true. My very good friend just returned from the region and he was vey excited at the progress made against the insurgency.
The media never reports a house that is not burning.
“…If we lose the WOT it wont be over we maybe able to hide in our little isolationist cacoon for a time but at some point the terrorist will get the WMD and they will make the Big Satan really pay and on that day that hundreds of thousands US civilians die and the people demand retribution, maybe they even dont at first but then the second attack, then they do, the war that will follow be that war of civilizations and the tatics that will be required are insane ugly, time will not be a advantage like we have today with WMD out of the bottle every attack will have to be stopped at all cost thier will be real police state patriot act nessecary, the muslim religion will be either heavily restricted or outright outlawed, mulsims here will be in concentration camps, thier cities will be burning across from Indonesia to Morroco that will be a war that will make WW2 look like a freekin creampuff in its brutality on both sides.“
Whew.
I’ll take the Mother of All Run-On Sentences for 500, Alex.
It’s all good Low… I promise we’ll all still be here to read the finished product.
Now, could you go back and slice and dice that bad boy a little shorter, tighten up the spelling and throw in a little punctuation. I’m sure there was a good point in there somewhere.
Thanks Pete
And sorry guys for the booklong rant but one thing that has just driven me crazy about this war is the misinformation and incompetent reporting on the subject. In past wars the media supported and did thier part for the nations war effort and in this war they have either been outright anit-american or at best equal to both sides american and terrrorist. What really sikens me that people dont have pride in thier nation to the point were a war effort strated by the slaughter of 3000 civilians cant be supported or at least make room for the good news to, the ohh good news dont sell line I just dont buy. Whatever happened to responsible reporting?
What scares me is the WOT wont end with Iraq and if this nation has no ability to make thier case continualy on the media front while our enemies have free reign to the point were every mistake is blown out of proportion every success is ignored or just briefed with more doom right after and what is historically minimul casualties unbearable we are doomed. If we cant make the fight on the media front we may skin by on Iraq but I dont look forward to the future especially when some major enemies on the horizon I couldnt even imagine thinking about fighting a WW2 level war agian in todays enviroment we would have no chance. War is hell war is brutal bad things happen people die that is reality and it will never be any different.
Peter– I think Bryon is having a little fun with the whole “no plan + aggitation to leave + GOP inability to admit mistakes + GOP inability to allow the Dems any say + the GOP saying that leaving is losing and unpatriotic= stay the course” when we all know we gotta get out before the next election cycle (or at least GOP senators and congressmen know that).
And C-Low, you gotta edit those things. Would like to read em, but no way I am going to slog through all that.
well im happy to see that our stay the course strategy will be continued. After all the blood thats been shed, to have the place turn into a terror haven that we most likely would have to re invade in a few years is not cool. And i believe that is what would happen if we so much as anounced even a ‘general’ timeschedule for our pull out. If we announce a date they’d just lay low till it came. Better we stay the course, and not aboandon those who have put their fiath and future in us.
Sorry guys never have been any good at English hated it in school and just barely got by now math I can swing a little bit but dont do me much good on this. Either way I know it was too long and I appologize, got a little well alot carried away.
So does anyone here happen to know just when things are going to be sufficiently settled down to magically bring our troops home? No? I thought not.
Sounds to me like the military and DoD are tieing troop withdrawal to success indicators rather than locking in to an arbitrarily chosen schedule. We all know how well *those* work.
The time of president Bush is over.
Hi everyone my name is Amber Homolak and I’m new. does anyone want to talk to me and be my friend?
thanks…
The time of president Bush is over.