"US and other foreign forces could be withdrawn from some Iraqi cities soon, according to Iraq'’s Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
"We believe some provinces are safe"… We can withdraw foreign troops from these cities"… which can then encourage an overall timetable," the prime minister said.
However, Mr Jaafari tempered his comments, saying Iraq is still working towards taking over command of security operations."
The story this past weekend over a "leaked" memo showing a plan for a US/British withdraw from Iraq, wasn't so much "news" As it is in any military operation you eventually begin to pull back your forces. President Bush, as well as Tony Blair had always said that coalition forces will stay until the Iraqi's can handle their own security.
You'll remember I posted here a report that up to 20,000 troops will be pulled by March of 2006, to be sure a smaller figure than what is contained on the leaked memo.
However, one of my former colleagues in the Pentagon confirms to me that this number is the "plan figure" for now, however, a lot depends not on our assessment, as much as "When Iraq signals that they are ready to take the wheel".
Strategically, a "scaled pull back" is completely plausible at this point, as specific areas are deemed "stable", we can begin to concentrate our efforts elsewhere.
One of the misconceptions the MSM attempts to protray is that our operations in relation to the insurgents is "hap-hazzard", i.e., that we move about at random and seem to be outwitted at every turn, playing "catch me if you can". As if there is no plan.
That is simply not true, and miliary types like myself KNOW it's not true. In any operation of this type where you are quashing an insurgency, you know that extinguishing "little sparks" is nothing to taking down the whole fire. So when some of the "major fires" are extinguished, the pull back will begin.
Subscribe by Email
Follow Updates Articles from This Blog via Email
No Comments