"WASHINGTON - The Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq — well over 100,000 — for four more years, the Army's top general said Saturday.
In an Associated Press interview, Gen. Peter Schoomaker said the Army is prepared for the "worst case" in terms of the required level of troops in Iraq. He said the number could be adjusted lower if called for by slowing the force rotation or by shortening tours for soldiers.
Schoomaker said commanders in Iraq and others who are in the chain of command will decide how many troops will be needed next year and beyond. His responsibility is to provide them, trained and equipped.
About 138,000 U.S. troops, including about 25,000 Marines, are now in Iraq.
"We are now into '07-'09 in our planning," Schoomaker said, having completed work on the set of combat and support units that will be rotated into Iraq over the coming year for 12-month tours of duty."
I love this. For all the Cindy Sheehan sideshows, the slanted poll's showing American's upchucking everytime they think "Iraq", the Administration is making it clear - "We are in for the long haul" - "We can't - we won't retreat!"
Of course it didn't take long for the usual suspects to come out with their "Quagmire" rhetoric:
Hagel Says Iraq War Looking Like Vietnam
"Hagel said "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning," he said.
Hagel, who was among those who advocated sending two to three times as many troops to Iraq when the war began in March 2003, said a stronger military presence by the U.S. is not the solution today.
"We're past that stage now because now we are locked into a bogged-down problem not unsimilar, dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam," Hagel said. "The longer we stay, the more problems we're going to have."
"What I think the White House does not yet understand — and some of my colleagues — the dam has broke on this policy," Hagel said. "The longer we stay there, the more similarities (to Vietnam) are going to come together."
Yeah, because putz's like you Hagel keep making the comparisons.
Cripes, EVERYTHING looks like Vietnam to this dimwit. McDonalds forgets to put the french fries in his lunch bag and Hagel heads to the microphone to decry the "lack of support our troops are getting in Vie.....ur, Iraq!"
Iraq and Vietnam are light years apart both in doctrine and application. Iraq isn't a "destination", it is the beginning. Lose there, we will lose here. There IS a war on Terror, the radical Islamic extermism which has ruled the fears of many for over 40 years is finally being assaulted, and at the first sign of difficulty (no matter how skewed the actual reporting of that is), people like Hagel want to cut and run.
You can't argue with success. We haven't been attacked since 9/11. London was attacked, but it wasn't a "large scale" operation. Most of the terrorism we see today is amatures lobbing archiac missles into warehouses because they're too inept to do any real damage.
We are winning Hagel. We tried the pasifist way, and it got 3000 of us killed. We have to stay the course, and I'm glad we have someone at the helm who isn't letting the MSM and slanted polls dictate our national security.
The fact is that Hagel and others like him are anti-war, yet don't want the label (just yet), because they know it won't help them win elections. I'm glad he's flapping his trap, I'm going to remind him of his words comes 2008.
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