December 12, 2005
CO-DEPENDENT NO MORE:
Iraq troop pull-out to begin in months (Richard Beeston and Stephen Farrell in Baghdad and Michael Evans in Basra, 12/13/05, Times of London)
BRITAIN and America are planning a phased withdrawal of their forces from Iraq as soon as a permanent government is installed in Baghdad after this week’s elections.In a move that has caused alarm in the outgoing Iraqi administration, American and British officials have made clear that they regard the end of Iraq’s two-and-a-half-year transitional period as the green light to begin withdrawing some of their combined force of around 170,000 troops as early as March. [...]
Zalman Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Baghdad, said last week that the US military role would increasingly become one of supporting frontline Iraqi forces until it was merely “a reserve”.
“Our goal will be to leave Iraq as soon as possible but without increasing insecurity,” he said. “Our strategic goal is Iraq standing on its own feet and American troops out.”
Always tough to send your young ones out on their own,m but its the only way to get them to stand on their own two feet, eh? Posted by Orrin Judd at December 12, 2005 10:44 PM
A simple analogy--even a civilian shoulod be able to comprehehd it: your teen-ager can take an airplane trip, but you have to pay for his ticket, and a pilot has to fly the airplane.
The level of discourse on the issue continues to be profoundly disappointing. Perhaps it is because of Vietnam after all. The bugout gang pines for an American defeat and humiliation and wants to recapitulate their glory days of our betrayed allies hanging to the helicopter skids on the embassy roof.
Posted by: Lou Gots at December 13, 2005 8:06 AMA better analogy: your teenager has to learn to drive, have a licensed driver with him at first, and borrow your keys, but not forever.
Posted by: oj at December 13, 2005 8:21 AM