US and UK look for early way out of Iraq

[cal04]

Private memos are circulating in Washington, Baghdad and London setting out detailed scenarios for withdrawal of US and British forces from Iraq as early as possible, a Foreign Office source said yesterday.

The policy papers have added urgency because a new Iraq government, to be elected next week if the election goes ahead on January 30 as planned, could set a target date for withdrawal.

John Negroponte, US ambassador to Baghdad, confirmed that a United Nations resolution declared that US and other forces would have to leave if requested by the Iraqi government. "If that's the wish of the government of Iraq, we will comply with those wishes. But no, we haven't been approached on this issue - although obviously we stand prepared to engage the future government on any issue concerning our presence here."

The Foreign Office source said: "Of course, we think about leaving Iraq. There is no point in staying there. There are continually plans in Whitehall, Washington and Baghdad to withdraw when we can.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1396222,00.html

[MichiganVote]

1. "Early" way out? Give me a fucking break. No WMD!!!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone realize how huge this is? Imagine if in WWII there had been a war based on no Holocaust or no Pearl Harbor. These fucking jackasses take the US and other countries to war on the basis a some bullshit satellite photo's and the world buys it?!! Have we lost our fucking minds?

Who is going to know what to believe from any government if there truly were a serious nuclear threat? George Bush has placed the entire planet at risk with his 'the rich boy from Texas who cries Wolf'.

Barely a whisper out there in America about this. No WMD. Repeat. No WMD.

[cliss]

3. You're right.

Again, these are LIES and MORE LIES. They're lying. If they're planning to back out, why are we building several permanent bases in the northern part of Iraq (so we can spy on the entire Middle East). These are buildings we're building over there. I've seen photos. This does not look very temporary to me.

Also, it's a well known fact that we're building the world's largest embassy in Baghdad. John (Dr. Death) Negroponte will be the ambassador. He's already there.

Don't tell me we're planning to pull out. It's bullshit.

[Vincardog]

2. aWoL NEVER wants to leave Iraq. He has build 15 PERMANENT

BASES there. Read the PNAC website and see the plans were there in 1998 to invade and occupy Iraq. The only thing Bu$h wants pull out of is my a$$ so he can ram it in further.

[leftchick]

14. AND..."a permanent military communications system "!!!!!

people need to wake the fuck up and realize they are all LIARS! Look at what they DO not what they SAY!


A Permanent Presence

Tue Jan 18,10:02 AM ET Op/Ed - The Nation


Ari Berman

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2281&ncid=742&e=5&u=/thenation/20050118/cm_thenation/132132

~snip~


Though the media ignored Kerry's statement and failed to do any substantive follow-up research, his comments were well-grounded in reality. On the day of the debate the Christian Science Monitor spotlighted the findings of defense specialist John Pike, whose website, GlobalSecurity.org, located twelve "enduring bases" in Iraq, including satellite photos and names. In March, the Chicago Tribune reported that US engineers were constructing fourteen such long-term encampments--the number Kerry referred to. The New York Times previously placed the number at four.


While the exact figure may change, suspicions of undisclosed US imperial plans--exemplified by permanent military bases--rightfully linger. Before the war, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz suggested moving US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia into Iraq. In October, a survey by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes found that two-thirds of respondents disapproved of a permanent military presence, even though more than half thought the US would build the bases anyway.


Now comes a report in the New York Sun by Eli Lake revealing that the Pentagon (news - web sites) is building a permanent military communications system in Iraq, a necessary foundation for any lasting troop presence. The new network will comprise twelve communications towers throughout Iraq, linking Camp Victory in Baghdad to other existing (and future) bases across the country, eventually connecting with US bases in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan (news - web sites).


"People need to get realistic and think in terms of our presence being in Iraq for a generation or until democratic stability in the region is reached," Dewey Clarridge, the CIA (news - web sites)'s former chief of Arab operations (and Iran-contra point man), told the Sun.


The fabled "exit strategy" may be not to exit. Thomas Donnelly, a defense specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, said the new communication system resembles those built in West Germany and the Balkans, places where American troops remain today. "The operational advantages of US bases in Iraq should be obvious for other power-projection missions in the region," Donnelly wrote in an AEI policy paper

[Zhade]

4. Smoke and mirrors. Allawi will never ask his handlers to leave.

He owes them too much.

[charlie]

8. He will if his handlers tell him to

The only thing Bushco deemed serious enough to plan for was the invasion. Everything since has been ad hoc, just wheel-spinning. Baghdad's been flattened, mission accomplished. There's bigger fish they're anxious to fry. It wouldn't surprise me if Allawi gets ordered to toss us out.

[Zhade]

19. Hmmm, interesting take. Hadn't considered that possibility!

NT!

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. kick

[peacefreak]

6. Early out--Iraq.

Early in Iran. There's lot's of places that are in need of "freedom".

[mordarlar]

11. This is all so familiar : /

[Solly Mack]

7. They are pretending that they always had an exit strategy

They are pretending that said strategy was always in the works.

They are pretending that such things as , no excuse for being there in the first place, never existed.

While Negroponte is pretending that a "free Iraqi government" has any real say in the matter.

I'd pretend they weren't all full of shit but my imagination refuses to play along with me.

[annabanana]

13. kick

[mordarlar]

9. out of Iraq into Iran?

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. An attempt at keeping Blair's Labour supporters onside?

With an election very likely this year, Blair could do with more of the traditional Labour voters actually voting for him, rather than staying away from the polls in disgust (and there's the worrying fact that Labour's vote would increase significantly if Brown replaced Blair, and Blair can't have someone else more popular than him in the party).

So Blair can leak non-commital rumours to the Guardian (normally a Labour paper, but which has wondered aloud about supporting the Lib Dems in the next election), about how the nightmare of occupation could be over soon, if we just trust him a few months longer - until he's been re-elected.

[fedsron2us]

16. Maybe, but I tend to agree with Robert Fisk

The critics of the war have not been vindicated............... I never believed that the insurrection would so quickly gather pace and be so disastrous to the occupation, and I never believed the occupation would be so flawed and so brutal

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=602626

The situation in Iraq is unraveling so fast that Bush and Blair may have alternative but to pull their troops out. Do not forget even the Iraqi parties who have agreed to participate in the election are largely running on tickets that demand withdrawal of US and British forces. If they were to actively join the armed resistance the occupation would become completely untenable.

[VirginiaDem]

17. I'm with you

When it comes to the US government, I tend to favor incompetency theories over conspiracy theories. (Although I'm not trying to imply you believe all of the below). The Bushies thought they could pull this off and now they're realizing they can't. Right now it's like the last couple years of Nixon/Kissinger and Vietnam--they're postponing the inevitable trying to find a way to save face. I will admit that Bush's messiah complex got in the way in a big way--he truly believed that he was ordained to get this job done so the facts had to be wrong. He neither knows what he knows nor knows what he doesn't know. Like Meg Ryan as Sally, he's the worst kind--high maintenance who thinks he's low maintenance.

[Capt_Nemo]

18. Absolutely right! This is for UK internal consumption

targeted for labour voters.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

12. It's too late

for an early way out, isn't it?

[ckramer]

15. Kidding? If Bush looked for getting out of Iraq, he wouldn't go in in the

first place!

We have the 52nd state. Congratulations!

"It's worth it!"