Pentagon Has Second Thoughts on Iraq Withdrawal

[Better Believe It]

Pentagon's second thoughts on Iraq withdrawal
Officials fear a final pullout in December could create a security vacuum
By ROBERT BURNS
Associated Press
April 10, 2011

WASHINGTON — Eight months shy of its deadline for pulling the last American soldier from Iraq and closing the door on an 8-year war, the Pentagon is having second thoughts.

Only on msnbc.com Puppies with purpose honor 9/11 victims No way! Streets in Texas town baffle visitors Obama to Boehner on Title X cuts: 'Nope. Zero' French diet's slimming Kate, but experts scoff Family remembers US teacher killed in Japan Salmonella in water frogs sickens 217, mostly kids Are credit score websites committing 'fraud'? Reluctant to say it publicly, officials fear a final pullout in December could create a security vacuum, offering an opportunity for power grabs by antagonists in an unresolved and simmering Arab-Kurd dispute, a weakened but still active al-Qaida or even an adventurous neighbor such as Iran.

The U.S. wants to keep perhaps several thousand troops in Iraq, not to engage in combat but to guard against an unraveling of a still-fragile peace. This was made clear during Defense Secretary Robert Gates' visit Thursday and Friday in which he and the top U.S. commander in Iraq talked up the prospect of an extended U.S. stay.

How big a military commitment might the U.S. be willing to make beyond 2011? "It just depends on what the Iraqis want and what we're able to provide and afford," Gates said Thursday at a U.S. base in the northern city of Mosul where U.S. soldiers advise and mentor Iraqi forces. He said the U.S. would consider a range of possibilities, from staying an extra couple of years to remaining in Iraq as permanent partners.

Read the full article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42519332/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa

[midnight]

1. Imagine that....

[DJ13]

2. They built that MASSIVE base for a reason

And it wasnt to turn over to the Iraqi's after a few years of use.

[walerosco]

5. +1000

[tavalon]

17. Hey, you're not supposed to be paying attention to that!

Geez, do you hate Amurca? (sorry no sarcasm smily on the IPad)

[pscot]

3. Wow

Who could have predicted that?

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Of course, the guys we like will want us to stay.

No matter the desires of 90% of the population.

Funny how it always works out that way.

[gratuitous]

6. Oh, but there's always a dandy reason

"Fragile peace." It'll all fall apart if we're not there to enforce civilization at gunpoint. There is, unfortunately, no plan for strengthening this fragile peace that doesn't involve force of arms. So we're there . . . well, forever, it seems. Darn the luck! The one objective we want to achieve, and we can't achieve it with guns and bombs and torture. Dammit to hell!

[snappyturtle]

7. Possibility of remaining as permanent partners? OMG! This has to

be the godfather of all MIC dreams. :banghead:

[Lasher]

8. "It just depends on what the Iraqis want..."

What about the wishes of the American people? Does that enter into the equation at all? Guess not.

[FormerDittoHead]

9. I feel like I'm trapped in a bananna republic and I lost my visa...

Oh my God have we been mind-fucked.

We can talk about cutting fucking Medicare, but we can't *talk* *about* cutting building over 2,000 F35's whose total cost will be over a TRILLION dollars.

That's ONE PROGRAM from ONE BRANCH of the military. But we talk about cutting back people's FUCKING HEALTH CARE.

I know why the military is off the table, and it's got NOTHING to do with "security".

It's a money-grab, pure and simple.

rant/
They KNOW that once we (reasonable people who aren't brain washed) get going, there isn't going to be much left, because there doesn't need to be that much. This corporation they've built. The whole purpose is to siphon money from the gov't to then piss away and build things which at BEST are not going to be used and at WORSE are used to kill innocent people and fight wars in places we really don't care about.

Even watching "the sunday shows" about the budget, etc., no one is able to ask WHEN are we going to DEEPLY cut into the military?

I and so many others have been passed over for opportunities because we were told we didn't have what it takes. We weren't smart enough, etc. But I look at who's running the country, who's really making decisions, who's FOLLOWING those decisions...

GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!
/rant

[Old and In the Way]

10. Next time someone complains about government subsidies for green power ,

remimd them we're all already financing security for Big Oil's 'gas up and go' distribution plan of oil from the ME. Without the US military presence on the ground and in the Gulf of Hormuz, 'cheap'oil. it would not be. They'd have to price it to cover the overhead of getting the product from the ground to the pump. It'd be a boatload more expensive. Taxpayers are subsidizing Big Oil through Defense and no one seems to point this out.

[grahamhgreen]

11. Oh I'm shocked. Every time a gun is fired a war pig makes money.

[global1]

12. Right On Cue.......

the minute one talks about deficits and cutting - the military is right there protecting their turf. We need to end these perpetual wars.

[I Drink Water]

13. Lets just move them their and get rid of them, but would that be fair to the Iraqi people?

[tavalon]

14. Wow, that's a surprise!

Not.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Does Iraq have WMD again? Saddam resurrected? Surge didn't work?

[chill_wind]

16. War and militarism. It's all we've got going, economically

and it works out fine for the same class of profiteers who never want it to dry up.

[malaise]

18. If my memory is correct the US still hasn't left

Germany, Japan, Korea...should I go on.
Imperialism and empire gone mad.

[Better Believe It]

19. Oh my. What a shocking surprise. Who would have thunk?

[JTFrog]

20. Did you forget to log out and back in again?

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