US officials: Troops to leave Iraq in 18 months »
Posted By STONERS 9 months ago in Political NewsPresident Barack Obama is expected to order all U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq by August of next year, administration officials said, closing the door on a war that has led to the death of 4,250 American soldiers.
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STONERS9 months ago
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"The pullout recommended by Obama's security advisers would free up troops and resources for the war in Afghanistan, where Obama has said the threat to national security is acute. The Iraq withdrawal would be completed 18 months from now."
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"We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war."-
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STONERS9 months ago
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"About 142,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq, roughly 14 brigades, about 11,000 more than the total in Iraq when President George W. Bush announced in January 2007 that he would "surge" the force to put down the insurgency. He sent an additional 21,000 combat troops to Baghdad and Anbar province."
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"Although the number of combat brigades has dropped from 20 to 14, the U.S. has increased the number of logistical and other support troops. A brigade is usually about 3,000 to 5,000 troops."
"Congress has approved more than $657 billion so far for the Iraq war, according to a report last year from the Congressional Research Service."
"As the Obama White House prepared to address the Iraq pullout, the man Obama defeated for the White House challenged suggestions by administration officials that the United States should lower its expectations in Afghanistan." -
libsRfunnyComment removed: Hard Banned1 Reply
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hyperbola9 months ago
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The devil is in the details.
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Obama's Non-Withdrawal Withdrawal Plan - Orwell in Babylon
It would be superfluous in us to point out that a plan to "end" a war which includes the continued garrisoning of up to 50,000 troops in a hostile land is, in reality, a continuation of that war, not its cessation. To produce such a plan and claim that it "ends" a war is the precise equivalent of, say, relieving one's bladder on the back of one's neighbor and telling him that the liquid is actually life-giving rain.
But this is exactly what we are going to get from the Obama Administration in Iraq. Word has now come from on high – that is, from "senior administration officials" using "respectable newspapers" as a wholly uncritical conduit for government spin – that President Obama has reached a grand compromise with his generals (or rather, the generals and Pentagon poobahs he has inherited -- and eagerly retained -- from George W. Bush) on a plan to withdraw some American troops from the country that the United States destroyed in an unprovoked war of aggression....
.... One of the most remarkable aspects of Obama's "war lite" plan is its brazen and absolute disregard for the agreement signed between the United States and the supposedly sovereign Iraqi government guaranteeing the complete withdrawal of all American troops by the end of 2011. ... But the hypocrisy – the literally murderous hypocrisy – of claiming that this plan "leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war," as Obama asserted in his State of the Union speech, is sickening. It does no such thing, and he knows it.
Instead, it entrenches the United States more and more deeply in a "counter-insurgency" war on behalf of whichever clique or faction of sectarian parties in Iraq is most effective in adhering to America's dominationist agenda in the region. It sends an apparently endless stream of American troops to die -- and, in even greater numbers, to kill -- in a criminal action that has helped bankrupt our own country while sending waves of violent instability and extremism around the world. It will further enfilth a cesspool of corruption and war profiteering that has already reached staggering, world-historical proportions.
All of this is what the Obama-Petraeus plan will do. But what it won't do is "end this war" -- "responsibly" or otherwise. When Obama says it will -- as he said last night to a rapt national audience -- he is, quite simply, and very deliberately, lying.
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/02/25/obama39s...
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mingsciansComment removed: Hard Banned
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BB649 months ago
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Wasn't this the timetable that we were looking at last year with President Bush? They didn't have any specific dates or information that would endanger the mission but this certainly sounds close. So much for his campaign promise of having the troops start pulling out by 21-Jan-09.
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Goppy9 months ago
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Not exactly ... Bush was pushing to have NO reference to ANY time-table.
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Remember how "No Time Table" was Gee-Dubs 'Line In The Sand"?
I do.
I remember it distinctly because later, during the Primaries ... Nouri al-Maliki floated the story that he agreed with OBAMA'S time-table.
THAT'S the time-table you are thinking of, I guess ... the OBAMA-al Maliki timetable --- where they sort of ... went around George W. Bush.
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I also heard today that Obama is going to cast a more critical eye on defense budgets. Could it really be that he is going to stand up to the Lobbyists for the Military Contractor PAC?
This would be great.
I don't think we need .. .. or can afford .. .. .. from Wikipedia ... "The 2005 U.S. military budget is almost as much as the rest of the world's defense spending ... combined ... "
There's nothing wrong with defense ... but when a nation builds up their military to unprecedented levels ... there's always the risk that some moron president will be elected and want to strut around the world ... thumping his chest ... launching into arbitrary, thoughtless wars ... incompetently managed.
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libsRfunnyComment removed: Hard Banned1 Reply
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libsRfunnyComment removed: Hard Banned5 Replies
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jwinstonComment removed: Spammer
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hyperbola9 months ago
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So far he seems to be continuing the same military imperialism that is bankrupting the country and destroying our constitution.
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Freeing Up Resources ... for More War
Hours after President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress, the New York Times printed the news that he plans to gradually withdraw “American combat forces” from Iraq during the next 18 months. The newspaper reported that the advantages of the pullout will include “relieving the strain on the armed forces and freeing up resources for Afghanistan.”
...Get the message? In his first speech to Congress, the new president threw down a 90-month-old gauntlet, reaffirming the notion that committing to war halfway around the world -- in Afghanistan and now in Pakistan too -- will make Americans safer. With drumrolls like that, the mission could outlive all of us.
And so, a colossal and fateful blunder, made by a very smart leader, arguably our best and brightest, is careening forward with the help of silence that defers all too readily to power. This is how the war in Vietnam escalated, while individuals and groups muted their voices. Many people will pay with their lives.
...Those who are fond of talking and writing about President Obama’s admirable progressive values will, sooner or later, need to come to terms with the particulars of his actual policies. In foreign affairs, the realities now include the ominous pairing of his anti-terrorism rhetoric and his avowed commitment to ratchet up the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan.
I don’t often make predictions, but I’m confident about this one: Within a few years, some members of Congress, and leaders of some progressive groups with huge email lists, will look back with regret as they recall their failure to clearly and openly oppose the pivotal escalation of the Afghan war.
They could save themselves a lot of shame, and save others their lives, by speaking out sooner rather than later. In the process, they might help save the Obama presidency from running aground in Afghanistan.
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/02/25/freeing-...
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Harbeas9 months ago
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McCains remarks shows he still doesn't get it. He stated that , "We should spend more in devolpment so the Afghans don't get seduced by the Taliban". Who gave us that responsibility? We just can't seem to get it through some politicians head that we don't have the right or responsibilty to interfere in another country's internal affairs or way of life.
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libsRfunnyComment removed: Hard Banned3 Replies
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BronxBomber9 months ago
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I suppose bow wow wolfie is one of those armchair generals that wants more needless blood, and guts spilled for his own personal sadistic pleasure, hence the sink. Too bad he and his ilk can't go over to Iraq to do some work, and see how ugly war really is.
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