*'s plan for Iraq is obvious.. and simple...

[Sagan]

It is becoming quite apparent to me that the Administration has one simple plan for the Iraq mess:

1. Keep talking tough
2. Drag their feet on troop withdrawals
3. Run out to the clock till 1/2009 and the next President.

This allows * to say, forever after, that he "stood tall" on Iraq and that, no matter how bad the situation looks in 2009, if the U.S. had just stuck with his strategy, we would have "won".

It allows political cover for his 25% base and for the neocons in general. Right now, they're just playing for future political survival and this is how they plan to do it.

[Jacobin]

1. I think you are right, but there is a problem with that 'stategery'

The Iraqis will likely overrun the bunkers and Green Zones before 2009, making our stay there untenable. The desire for our departure is now nearly unanimous among Iraqis

Cue the helicopters taking troops off rooftops

[BonnieJW]

2. And don't forget the money!

The biggest reason he has for staying is all the money the corporations are making. Haliburton, KBR, Lockheed, Northrop, etc. They're making a brazillian dollars every day.

[Blackhatjack]

3. Amazing! I think it, you post it !! .....n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Another foreseeable problem. The violence and chaos can

escalate to a point where extracting our troops is not possible; they will be trapped in their war theatre.

[Warpy]

5. Actually, it's what Nixon's "secret plan" was in 1968

only he left office early and the Vietnamese got it together enough to kick us out for good in 1975.

That's why those of us who were alive back then realize the same damn thing will happen in Iraq, sooner or later, and at the same horrific cost.

[cynatnite]

6. I figured he was raping the land of oil n/t

[MilesColtrane]

7. Bush believes the key to "Victory in Iraq" lies in...

attacking Iran.

In his mind the Iranians are funding and training the insurgents. (As well as developing nuclear capability)

At this moment Bush doesn't have the political will to begin bombing.

Political cover for opening another front in the WOT, and indeed, support for a draft would probably come if there were some type of big headline grabbing terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

...just saying.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. It will work about as well as the original "plan".

The one with the grateful Iraqis flinging flowers at the troops and naming their kids Dubya.

Alas for poor Boobya. The Iraqis, and their neighbors, have their own "plans" that don't require American "help".