So! Condi lets the cat outa the bag! There IS NO Exit Strategy For Iraq!

[leftchick]

Don’t talk of Iraq exit strategy: Rice

~snip~

But Rice appeared to rebuff suggestions by congressional critics of the war and others that the election should mark the start of planning for a withdrawal of the 150,000 US troops in Iraq.

“I don’t think we want to talk in terms of exit strategies,” she said. “I think we should ask ourselves what can we do now to — as quickly as possible — make the Iraqis self-sufficient but also give them the support that they need.” Iraq was likely to figure prominently in Rice’s talks in Britain, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Italy, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, sandwiched around stops in Israel and the West Bank.

She failed to mention the REAL reason why of course...The US is Planning (no matter how insane it is) A Permanent Presence in Iraq. Think.. "A Generation"

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

~snip~

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.


Next time the Bush Administration hints at withdrawing troops, keep these grand plans in mind.

[KlatooBNikto]

1. The Road to our moral and material bankruptcy now runs through the sands

of Iraq.

[indepat]

9. Sadly you have hit the proverbial nail squarely on its head.

[H2O Man]

2. The US investment

in building the military bases and the planned embassy make clear that a long-term occupation has been planned since ... well, long before 9-11. This is part of the neocon "We Rule The World" strategy that Wolfowitz put on paper in '98.

[indepat]

8. And the people nonetheless returned GWB to office although all this should

have been perfectly clear to every voter.

[ladjf]

3. Her comments, along with those of Rumsfield "we will stay as

long as they need us to stay" are weasel words that really mean
we will stay as long as necessary to control the oil. If they can establish some sort of puppet govt, like Saddam's was initially, then they would leave knowing that they are still running the show.

How long can this blatant, fascists imperialism continue to be allowed to run roughshod over any country that has exploitable resources?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. If we leave, how will we be able to ensure that the bulk of the

control of the oil industry remains in our hands?? I mean, what if someone up and said, hey, look at the mess these people have created, out with them.... ya never know... not only this mess, but the one before this one, and the continued bombing for the last 12 years.. tsk tsk....

[dbt]

5. Secretary of State Olive Oyl.

Who'da thunk that the other side of the Looking Glass would be Toontown?

:freak:
dbt

[flobee1kenobi]

6. They NEVER had a plan

Unless you count the "greeted as liberators" plan
the "mission accomplished" plan
or the "vote for freedom" plan

GWB tried to run this war like he ran his businesses, and like the rest of his businesses, they all failed.
You just can't "wing it" with a war

[cthrumatrix]

7. the whore media won't ask her about the 14 permanent army bases

[leftchick]

11. No One Asks About Them or the Multi MILLION Dollar Communications

System! Joe (I love to hear myself Blather) Biden should be asking these questions every fucking Sunday he is on TV. Instead of going on and on with his condi love fests. :puke:

here are some great links to read and pass along.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/iraq-intro.htm

<snip>

As of early 2004 US occupation forces appeared to be deployed at approximately 50 locations in Iraq. An exact tally is impossible, since not all operating locations have been publicly reported, and some reported operating locations may have become inactive. The tally is also complicated by the multiplication of names that have been applied to a specific locations, and the existence of multiple place names for contiguous locations. This is particularly notable at Baghdad International Airport and the contiguous palace facilities.

The U.S. Army's top general said 28 January 2004 he is making plans based on the possibility that the Army will be required to keep tens of thousands of soldiers in Iraq through 2006. Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee of the United States that "for planning purposes" he has ordered his staff to consider how the Army would replace the force that is now rotating into Iraq with another force of similar size in 2005 - and again in 2006.

By late March 2004 it was apparent that the US military was systematically renaming many of the existing Camps and Forward Operating Bases as new units deployed to replace units that had served their time in Iraq. Camp Paliwoda, formerly known as FOB Eagle, was renamed in memory of Capt. Eric Paliwoda, who died 02 January 2004 when an enemy mortar round scored a direct hit on his room.

In January 2005 it was reported that the Pentagon was building a permanent military communications system in Iraq. The new Central Iraq Microwave System, is to consist of up to 12 communications towers throughout Iraq, along with fiber-optic cables connecting Camp Victory to other coalition bases in the country.

~snip~

The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Sistani-blessed Shi'ite list that will capture most of the popular vote, has officially dropped its demand to negotiate the American departure. This essentially means, from many a Sunni point of view, that the Shi'ites will rely on the Americans to protect them from the Sunni resistance, both secular and Islamist - as well as from the hundreds of thousands of disgruntled, unemployed former Ba'athists who may or may not (yet) be part of the resistance.

Ibrahim Jaafari, the official spokesman of the Hezb al-Dawa al-Islamiya party, founded in 1957 (the oldest Iraqi Shi'ite party), the third most popular figure in Iraq after Sistani and Muqtada al-Sadr, the No 2 at the UIA list and a serious contender for becoming the new prime minister, has already spelled it out: "If the US pulls out too fast there would be chaos." Jaafari, crucially, also enjoys a lot of respect by moderate Sunnis.

Current Finance Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, a former Maoist and Ba'athist turned free marketer, also a member of the UIA and strong contender for becoming premier, has repeatedly talked about "realistic thinking" in terms of securing Iraq. Mahdi is very close to some members of the White House's National Security Council.


http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB01Ak02.html

[cthrumatrix]

14. once again.... propaganda central at work with NO pushback by the media

[Gman]

10. This is old news

a permanent presence in Iraq was talked about over a year ago. I wish I'd saved those links.

[izzie]

12. I guess we will leave when the oil is gone.

We are also building a nice new base in Germany. Why do we need all this army? Who are we going to fight? Does war give meaning to these peoples life of something? I just do not get it, and I spent 20 years right in the middle of it all.

[Freebird12004]

13. that's sad