EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Considers Moving Troops From al-Anbar Province to Baghdad

[ECH1969]

ABC News has learned that Pentagon officials are considering a major strategic shift in Iraq, to move U.S. forces out of the dangerous Sunni-dominated al-Anbar province and join the fight to secure Baghdad.

There are now 30,000 U.S. troops in al-Anbar, mainly Marines, braving some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq. At least 1,055 Americans have been killed in this region, making al-Anbar the deadliest province for American troops.

The region is a Sunni stronghold and the main base of operations for al Qaeda in Iraq and has been a place of increasing frustration to U.S. commanders.

In the memo, first reported by the Washington Post, Devlin writes, "Despite the success of the December elections, nearly all government institutions from the village to provincial levels have disintegrated or have been thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated by al Qaeda in Iraq."

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=2685559

[uppityperson]

1. Iraq, Baghdad, Green Zone, Embassy, Helicopters

I hope they have enough transport.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Retreat!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's get our troops out of Iraq before it becomes a rout. If we wait too long, we might not be able to fly our troops out and they will have to fight their way to Kuwait.

[saigon68]

15. Wait -------more cavalry to the rescue

[Jacobin]

16. No, no no. It's "Advance To The Rear"

[ckramer]

10. That's the eventual outcome, isn't it?

The word Vietname is writting all over the wall.

[buddysmellgood]

2. Dubya retreating from al Qaeda. Cuttin and running. How's he going to spin that?

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. That must be one bad place, if 30k Marines can't hold it.

WTF are we doing there, anyway?

[ECH1969]

6. al-Qaeda owns Anbar province

Make no mistake about it Bush is fleeing from the organization that attacked the US.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. He'll spin it. He really thinks Americans are stupid.

[uppityperson]

11. I thought the Iraqis owned it?

not enough al-Qaeda around, mostly Iraqis and civil war.

[psychopomp]

12. Bull.

AQ is no more an organized entity than the Klan; both are loosely-aligned groups that share ideology and name but other than that the group that attacked the US (themselves just another splinter group) has no structural relationship to the ideologues fighting in Iraq.

[jordi_fanclub]

5. Bring the HELICOPTERS too...

"... Pentagon officials are considering a major strategic shift in Iraq, to move U.S. forces
out of the dangerous Sunni-dominated al-Anbar province and join the fight to secure Baghdad."

One picture says thousand words... http://icasualties.org/oif/pmap.aspx

[BrotherBuzz]

7. Ouch! How's this going to play in Peoria?

Spin misters are losing sleep. Say goodnight Gracie.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Shhhh. I think I hear a fat lady singing in the distance.........

[Warren Stupidity]

13. I have a slightly different view on this: we just swung sunni

in the civil war. Cheney to Saudi Arabia for talks and the talks lead to a shift in our focus in the civil war from shiite to sunni. The Saud family appears to have argued that the important thing now is to make sure that Iran does not end up the big winner here.

[Strelnikov_]

14. Thats The Way I See It Too. Consider The Recent Reports That We Have Been Negotiating

with the Sunni insurgency. This is consistent with what I have been hearing, that we will be going after the Sadr militias.

Iran will probably begin openly supporting the Shia militias, and the clusterfuck will spin up a notch.


By taking this side in the civil war, we are for all practical purposes now at war with Iran.

[Jacobin]

17. We have a winner

precisely so