The Petraeus report is a farce. Are you surprised?
From the Department of Duh.
That's the strategy. To leave a "presence that will outlast this president" regardless of the circumstances.
(Oh, and since the White House is writing Petraeus' report, what recommendations do you think it will shade?)
Despite political pressure for a change of course in Iraq, the White House hopes to keep in place its existing military strategy and troop levels there after the mid-September report from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, administration officials said.....
One senior White House official expressed the prevailing mood, saying he does not expect a "wholesale change in plans" next month.....
Another senior official... said he expects the U.S. presence to return to pre-buildup levels of 15 combat brigades and about 130,000 troops a year from now, down from about 160,000. "We all know where we want to get to," this official said. "We all know that there will be a long-term robust troop presence that will outlast this president."
That's the strategy. To leave a "presence that will outlast this president" regardless of the circumstances.
(Oh, and since the White House is writing Petraeus' report, what recommendations do you think it will shade?)
posted by mikevotes at
10:01 PM
4 Comments:
Will they be extending tours to 24 months?
I heard Rich Lowry of NRO describing what wonderful political and military progress we have made during the surge and how we must not give in to the nasty cut and runners and ruin it all. The surge must continue, Lowry said.
That putz Jom Lehrer (who really does suck...can't he ever call anyone who says 2+2=5 a liar?) never did ask him what another year will do the troop rotations...nor did he suggest Lowry himself sign up to help out with that problem.
Fuckers.
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 10:15 PM
They can keep 130.000 in Iraq through the end of the presidency without going past 15 months.It would mean that everyone leaving comes back on their 366 day, and some guard and reserve units, but under the current rules, they can manage 130,000 through inauguration.
It leaves nothing else available and guts the force, but it can be done.
As for Lehrer, he would not be confrontational if it were Satan himself. That's his intentional stance, his theory of his job. I saw him talking about it in an interview once.
By
mikevotes, at 6:15 AM
I know they can keep 130,000 in until 1/20/09, but how much longer can they keep the 160,000-170,000? Because it sounded to me like Lowry (who clearly takes his marching orders from the RNC) was saying we need to keep troop levels at that number for the foreseeable future.
As for Lehrer, yeah I've seen him say that too - that's the shtick for the whole show actually. It's useless, kinda like CNN with less melodrama. I stopped watching PBS about two years ago, but I saw a little bit of the Newshour last night and it sent me through the roof hearing the NRO guy spewing bullshit and Lehrer sitting there like the game show host he is politely nodding and letting him get away with it
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 8:04 AM
Sorry. I misunderstood you.
There's a number of the whackjobs saying we need to keep 160,000+ through 2008. I'm thinking of Bill Kristol for example who recently said that we should extend deployments.
And, as NRO is just the poor man's AEI, it wouldn't surprise me if they came in that way.
I will always watch the intro section to Lehrer when there's Israel/Palestine news going on because the ITV reports have traditionally been the best, most balanced, but I never watch interviews either.
By
mikevotes, at 1:49 PM
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