a bit off the topic: even though the US attemped conquest of Iraq is
definitely a bad thing, maybe it's good for the left that the US is
going to be mired there for a long time.
On 12/3/06, CeJ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Getting back to the original impetus of the thread. First, please
note, the title 'begs the question': that the US government has ever
contemplated a withdrawal of any sort from Iraq. Not being privy to
the goings-on of NSC meetings and the president's war cabinet, the
best we can do is make analytic guesses.
I would guess that the US sent troops into Iraq for permanent
occupation because (1) short to mid term -- 5-10 years--it would help
justify doubling and even tripling the federal defense spending and
(2) the national security state is convinced it needs large permanent
bases in the ME (the doctrine of 'rapid deployment' going to the
wayside because everytime the US attempts to deploy rapidly it takes
the forces about a year, and the military still has not got--and
perhaps never will--airlift capacity to move its artillery and armor).
I should think they would be happy to have three really large bases in
Iraq like the ones they have in Japan, Okinawa, Germany and the UK. So
a federal plan that breaks up Iraq is the most likely choice and
perhaps always was if the US could not get a 'pacified' Iraq after
removing Saddam's government.
See Rumsfeld's ponderings below:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061203/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
....
>>Conduct an accelerated drawdown of U.S. bases, noting they have
already been reduced from 110 to 55. "Plan to get down to 10 to 15
bases by April 2007, and to 5 bases by July 2007.">>
....
>>Rumsfeld also listed a handful of "below the line" (less attractive)
options that included continuing on the current path, moving a large
fraction of all U.S. forces in Iraq into Baghdad, increasing U.S.
forces substantially, setting a firm withdrawal date and pushing "an
aggressive federalism plan" that would lead to three separate states —
Sunni, Shia and Kurd.>>
Sen. Biden of the pro-war Democratic Party has also pushed the
'aggressive federalism plan'.
As I said in 2000 when I knew the Bushwa would take office: 5-10 years
of hell for the Iraqi people, for sure.
CJ
--
Jim Devine / "Because things are the way they are, things will not
stay the way they are." -- Bertolt Brecht
