December 5, 2006
VIETNAMIZATION WAITS FOR NO COMMISSION:
U.S. Military Shifts Troops in Iraq Into Advisory Roles (THOM SHANKER and EDWARD WONG, 12/05/06, NY Times)
American commanders in Iraq are already shifting thousands of combat troops into advisory positions with Iraqi Army and police units, especially in the capital, in their latest attempt to bring sectarian violence under control. [...]The troops have been reassigned by commanders, who have not sought additional combat troops to replace them. While the troops have not been through the special program for trainers set up by the military, they are working in their areas of expertise, commanders said.
American generals in Iraq have made the reassignments in recent weeks even though President Bush and his senior national security advisers have not yet made a formal decision about whether to expand the American contingent sent to Iraq specifically to serve on military training teams.
Basically, the best the Baker Commission can do is endorse what's already going on devolution into multiple states and vietnamization of the Civil War in Baghdadistan. Had the President accepted these realities three years ago he'd have won a Reaganesque landslide and still control Congress.
MORE:
Iraq to command own forces by spring: US general (AFP, 12/05/06)
Iraq's government will have command of its own armed forces by the middle of next year, a US general said, revealing details of a deal between the US president and the Iraqi prime minister.Posted by Orrin Judd at December 5, 2006 8:00 AM
We had best figure out what we are going to do when those outsiders the Democrats would like to suck up to start intervening on behalf of their clients. Recall that we have total air supremacy, which still trumps anything and everything the rags can come up with.
The very reason reason the real America-haters pine for the restoration of Saddam Hussein is that the former Iraq cannot be held together by any "unity government" or such nonsense.
Posted by: Lou Gots at December 5, 2006 12:05 PMWhy? If it cascades into Iran vs. the Arabs we win too.
Posted by: oj at December 5, 2006 12:14 PMThey are doing what's lay out in Rumsfeld's memo leaked a couple of days ago.
Posted by: ic at December 5, 2006 2:01 PMwhich is what he wanted to do in the first place, thus the light footprint.
Posted by: oj at December 5, 2006 3:10 PMDon't worry, in 2 years President McCain will be on hand to do the bidding of the WklyStan and NR and add 500,000 troops to theater. Bygum they'll make it Vietnam if it's the last thing they do.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at December 5, 2006 3:47 PM500,000 troops to take care of Syria and Iran? fine by me.
Posted by: AWW at December 5, 2006 8:09 PMAWW - shame on you! Syria would fall in a week, although who would run it after Assad is killed is unclear. And we will not occupy Iran, and probably won't fight on the ground unless they outright invaded Iraq.
The fun part will be watching all the terrorists in Syria try to get out (to Iran, the West Bank, who knows where) if we do strike there. The border crossings will be target-rich environments for sure.
Posted by: jim hamlen at December 5, 2006 8:39 PM