LAT: Resistance to Deadlines for Iraq is Weakening

[Rose Siding]

More U.S. officers doubt insurgents would gain, and believe that Baghdad must be pushed.

WASHINGTON -- Growing numbers of American military officers have begun to privately question a key tenet of U.S. strategy in Iraq — that setting a hard deadline for troop reductions would strengthen the insurgency and undermine efforts to create a stable state.
...
"It's basic counterinsurgency," said a military officer who has served in Baghdad and did not want to publicly disagree with the president's stated policy. "You have to have a trusted, capable government."

Some in the military argue that publicizing a timetable for reducing forces is far less damaging to a counterinsurgency campaign than the administration has suggested....

"The Powell Doctrine is all about overwhelming numbers of troops with specific missions, with specified end-states, for specified durations with — go figure — an exit strategy," said the officer who has served in Baghdad. "To not mention this stuff is actually counter to the contemporary military mind-set."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-deadlines31oct31,0,6295222.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Barrett808]

1. k & r n/t

[saigon68]

2. The NEOCONS want never ending War for financial reasons

The Right Wing Fundy Nut-cases want all Islamics exterminated for religious reasons

Bush wants to please his handlers for psychotic reasons

Al Sadr wants all Christians converted for religious reasons

LOL