January 13, 2005
COMING HOME:
Powell sees some U.S. troops leaving Iraq this year, but sets no timeline (The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, January 13, 2005)
American troops will begin leaving Iraq this year as the Iraqi Army, national guard and police force take on a larger security role, said the U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell."But I cannot give you a timeline when they will all be home," Powell told National Public Radio in an interview released Wednesday by the State Department.
There are about 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, many of them under fire, and casualties have been mounting.
Powell also ruled out any U.S. move to postpone elections scheduled for Jan.30 in Iraq to choose an interim legislative assembly.
The interim government in Baghdad and the Iraqi election commission want to move ahead with the election and so do the people, Powell said in the interview, which was conducted on Tuesday.
The less of us the better for them.
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 13, 2005 8:34 AM
I haven't read the blog in a long time, so it's nice to see that Orrin Judd still sticks with strange ideas until the bitter end -- no-one can fault him for being inconsistent. One such idea is his belief that Shi'ites would successfully control Iraq after a rapid American pullout. ("The less of us the better for them.") In fact, a quick pullout would facilitate a Sunni coup. Sunni insurgents managed to assassiante two of Ali Sistani's aides in two separate incidents last week, a forerunner of the wave of assassinations that would occur if America pulled out quickly. Yet even as insurgents manage to kill high level Shi'ites and government figures, no-one even knows who the Sunni insurgency leaders are. It's unlikely that Sunnis could control Shi'ite dominated areas, but right now there's little chance that Shi'ites could maintain control of Baghdad or the Sunni triangle: they have neither the firepower nor the intel.
(Some other of OJ's strange ideas in foreign affairs his belief that Palestinians are going to get a state anytime during the Bush administration -- they won't -- or that American troops will soon be completely pulled out of Iraq -- we're still in Afghanistan, we're still in Yugoslavia, and we're going to be in Iraq for years to come.)
You mean the Palestine that just elected its own leader?
Posted by: oj at January 14, 2005 12:46 PMYou mean the same Palestine that elected Arafat nine years ago (or whenever)?
The Palestinians currently have a provisional pseudo-state, like they've had for years. Sharon will not give them anything else. Even if Sharon were gone, I don't see a true Palestinian state being created anytime soon. Israel will never give the Palestinians a state without some kind of deal, but the Palestinian leadership will never agree to a deal on terms acceptable to Israel. (For instance, I can't imagine the Palestinians officially signing away the "right of return", if only for reasons of pride.) So no Palestinian state will be established within the next four years.
And whose boundaries the Israelis are drawing even now. It's a state now and it'll be official before Christmas.
Posted by: oj at January 14, 2005 4:19 PMI'll hold you to that. But I think this will go the way of your "Troops out of Iraq by Memorial Day 2004" prediction. You've wrongly assumed that President Bush holds your own views on the necessity of a Palestinian state, just as you wrongly assumed that Bush held your own views on quickly exiting Iraq.
Time will tell...
Posted by: Peter Caress at January 14, 2005 5:16 PM