June 16, 2006

AS THEY STAND UP, WE STAND DOWN:

Iraq to take over the south's security: deputy PM (AP, June 16, 2006)

Iraq's deputy prime minister says Iraq has an agreement to take over security responsibilities from Australian, British and Japanese forces in southern Iraq this month. [...]

At a defence meeting of the three countries last week in London, British officials told their counterparts that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will announce the transfer of security authority in southern Iraq next Tuesday, Kyodo News agency reported, citing coalition sources.

London will then announce the pullout of its forces from the southern province of Al Muthanna, and Tokyo and Australia will follow with similar announcements, Kyodo said.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to announce a pullout by Japan from the southern city of Samawah as early as next Wednesday, Japanese government and ruling coalition sources said.

Australia is expected to announce plans to pull its forces out of the area the same day.

The withdrawal of Japanese troops is likely to begin later this month and may be completed by the end of July, the sources said.

MORE:
Top Sunni asked Bush for pullout timeline (Associated Press, 6/16/06)

Iraq's vice president has asked President Bush for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, the Iraqi president's office said.

Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, made the request during his meeting with Bush on Tuesday, when the U.S. president made a surprise visit to Iraq.

"I supported him in this," President Jalal Talabani said in a statement released Wednesday. Al-Hashimi's representatives could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 16, 2006 2:41 PM
Comments

Nice of them to go first. In theory at least, it times our troops well to start pulling out in October or so.

Posted by: Timothy at June 16, 2006 3:16 PM

Except that we gave them the easy job--the Shi'ite areas were never going to be a problem.

Posted by: oj at June 16, 2006 3:22 PM

No deal on the U.S. setting a withdrawal time line. They (the Iraqi government) need to propose one.

Posted by: ghostcat at June 16, 2006 5:08 PM

Pull out... why? During the occupation of Germany we had barely gotten our bases built by the third year. Get back to us in 50 some odd years and we'll think about it... and we had 340,00 troops in Europe for that time, not a measly 140,000.

Posted by: lebeaux at June 16, 2006 8:04 PM

Yep, the Iraqis are going to propose a date for themselves to be denuded of American air, armor, logistic and TENCAP* support. There's a plan.

Perhaps they can start training for the bugout by practicing chin-ups on helicopter skids.

*Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities
http://www.fas.org/irp/program/core/tencap.htm

Posted by: Lou Gots at June 17, 2006 2:42 AM

We have to recognize that this war is continued by civilian/political leaders, not military leaders and certainly not by on-the-ground folks. That's on the Iraqi side, too. Tens of millions of dollars a day flow into Iraq from U.S. coffers as long as our troops are there. How is Iraq incentivized to "stand up" so that we can "stand down"?
As I see it, ONLY if we set a deadline for redeployment can we expect Iraqis to assume responsibility for their own welfare.
Oh, I agree we have created a huge mess, unitentionally (or at least foolishly) encouraged terrorism to grow in that country and would be leaving a country greatly challenged to even simply return to pre-war infrastructure status.
But we are not the solution. We ARE the problem in Iraq.

Posted by: Randy Anderson at June 21, 2006 2:22 PM

We have to recognize that this war is continued by civilian/political leaders, not military leaders and certainly not by on-the-ground folks. That's on the Iraqi side, too. Tens of millions of dollars a day flow into Iraq from U.S. coffers as long as our troops are there. How is Iraq incentivized to "stand up" so that we can "stand down"?
As I see it, ONLY if we set a deadline for redeployment can we expect Iraqi political leaders to assume responsibility for their own welfare and give up the "cash cow".
Oh, I agree we have created a huge mess, unitentionally (or at least foolishly) encouraged terrorism to grow in that country and would be leaving a country greatly challenged to even simply return to pre-war infrastructure status.
But we are not the solution. We ARE the problem in Iraq. Rep. John Murtha is right. There is not a military solution.
Refer to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/why-do-democrats-let-bush_b_23490.html

Posted by: Randy Anderson at June 21, 2006 2:26 PM

The withdrawal will happen naturally but rather slower than it should--the military is just like any other big government program and quite cumbersome.

Posted by: oj at June 21, 2006 8:45 PM
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