(UK Guardian) Military chiefs(Petraeus) give US six months to win Iraq war

[sabra]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2023542,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

Military chiefs give US six months to win Iraq war

· Violence expected to rise after UK withdrawal
· Troop numbers too low
· Coalition is 'disintegrating'

Simon Tisdall
Wednesday February 28, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

An elite team of officers advising US commander General David Petraeus in Baghdad has concluded the US has six months to win the war in Iraq - or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat.

The officers - combat veterans who are leading experts in counter-insurgency - are charged with implementing the "new way forward" strategy announced by president George Bush on January 10. The plan includes a controversial "surge" of 21,500 additional American troops to establish security in the Iraqi capital and Anbar province.

But the team, known as the "Baghdad brains trust" and ensconced in the heavily fortified Green Zone around the US embassy, is struggling to overcome a range of entrenched problems in what has become a race against time, said a former senior administration official familiar with their deliberations. "They know they are operating under a clock. They know they are going to hear a lot more talk in Washington about 'Plan B' by the autumn - meaning withdrawal. They know the next six-month period is their opportunity. And they say it's getting harder every day," the former official said.

By improving security, the plan's short-term aim is to create time and space for the Iraqi government to bring rival Shia, Sunni and Kurd factions together in a process of national reconciliation, us officials say. If that works within the stipulated timeframe, longer-term schemes for rebuilding Iraq under the so-called "go long" strategy will be set in motion. But the next six months are make-or-break for both the US military and the Iraqi government.

The main obstacles confronting Gen Petraeus's team are:
· Insufficent numbers of troops on the ground
· A "disintegrating" international coalition
· An anticipated upsurge in violence in the south as the British leave
· Morale problems as casualties rise
· A failure of political will in Washington and/or Baghdad

[tk2kewl]

1. Timetables?

Damn generals are emboldening our enemies. :sarcasm:

[Rydz777]

2. "Six months to win the war"

Winning in six months is especially hard when nobody has defined what "win" means. I have an idea - support the troops by bringing them home NOW.

[calimary]

8. I don't know about you, but if I hear another one of those "...another six months"

or "...the next six months" or some derivative of that, I. WILL. SCREAM!!!

These assholes have been "another six months-ing" us since the war started going bad - in 2003. Oh, well, we have to give it "another six months," or "in six more months" we'll have a better idea, or "the next six months" are make-or-break...

They've. Been. Going. On. Like. This. For. MANY. MULTIPLES. Of. Six. Months.

It never is an improvement, it always gets worse, we continue to dig ourselves in deeper, and HOW MANY of our soldiers are killed or horribly maimed? I wonder what the figures will be in this latest "six months" interval. :grr:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Yeah, that's going to happen.

[gratuitous]

4. One more Friedman Unit (FU)

Just another six months. And then, as Atrios so perceptively asks, "Then what?" Bring everybody home? Move the goalposts back another six months? Leave a post-it for the next guy to occupy the Oval Office? And what will "winning the war in Iraq" look like? Will we know it when we see it?

It might be a disaster to start evacuating the troops tomorrow. It would be even more disastrous to dick around another six (or nine or twelve) months and then start evacuating the troops.

[Solly Mack]

5. Lewis Sorley and General Abrams not inspiring you anymore, Petraeus?

[PFunk]

6. I predict that this war will end about six months after bush leaves office...

...and a new democratic president gets in.

[hadrons]

7. Thank you sir, may I have another Freidman