Military Planners, in Nod to Obama, Are Preparing for a Faster Iraq Withdrawal

[Pirate Smile]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — Military commanders are drawing up plans for a faster withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in anticipation that President-elect Barack Obama will reject current proposals as too slow, Pentagon and military officials said Wednesday.

The new plans would provide alternatives to a timetable drawn up by the top American commanders for Iraq to bring troops home more slowly than Mr. Obama promised during his presidential campaign. Those plans were described to Mr. Obama last month.
The officials said that Mr. Obama had not requested the new plans, but that they were being prepared in response to public statements from the president-elect and on the basis of conversations between military officials and members of Mr. Obama’s transition team.

-snip-
Senior military officers say they have anticipated that Mr. Obama will seek speedier options for Iraq troop withdrawals. But they have also expressed uneasiness about a quick withdrawal from Iraq and are unclear at this point about Mr. Obama’s overall strategy in Afghanistan.

“It is more than a question of how fast and how low; it includes calculating how much risk you are willing to take in Iraq,” one senior military officer said of the discussions over a withdrawal.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/us/politics/15policy....

[Idealism]

1. Its past time they got the message, wtf were they waiting for?

[bertman]

2. A new Commander-in-Chief who wants a faster withdrawal.

[Selatius]

3. In this nation, the military, for better and worse, must obey the president at the time.

Even if the president may exhibit proto-fascist or even fascist tendencies. A lot of good officers were simply trying to wait out Bush. If the sane officers resigned their posts in large numbers, the only people left commanding armies would be Bush loyalists. That might make the situation even worse.

[Idealism]

4. Good points all n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

5. K&R

[Pirate Smile]

6. kick

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. Afghanistan awaits, after all.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. k