Powell Sees Troops Returning This Year

[wicket]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=2&u=/ap/20050112/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq

American troops will begin leaving Iraq this year as the Iraqi army, national guard and police force take on a larger security role, says Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"But I cannot give you a timeline when they will all be home," Powell told National Public Radio in an interview released Wednesday by the State Department.

There are some 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, many of them under fire, and casualties have been mounting.

Powell also ruled out any U.S. move to postpone elections scheduled Jan. 30 in Iraq to choose an interim legislative assembly.

[deutsey]

1. At least he didn't say he could see "the light at the end of the tunnel"

:eyes:

[The Zanti Regent]

43. My only child came home...

...to a plot in a VA Cemetery!

FUCK YOU, POWELL!

[jdj]

44. I am so sorry.

My thoughts and prayers are with you.

I can't believe Powell has the nerve to say this.

Just days after Gringrich was bragging about the 30 years war.

[aikido15]

48. Me too...

I am truely sorry...:hug:

[aikido15]

49. Powell is so full of shit!

How would he know anything, his ass is out the door!

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

2. The same way he "saw" all those weapons...

with the aid of three mirrors and a flashlight.

[ConcernedNonpartisan]

3. He also saw WMD's

the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause!

[underpants]

4. Colin, seriously, shut up I mean for your own good

Your reputation is crap right now but if you just lay low for a while the 'Murkan people will forgive you they do it in Hollywood all the time.

I'm sorry I want the troops home as much as anyone but this has to be the LOL WTF headline and story of the year so far.


"We are in a kind of bind,"

[Jacobin]

40. "a kind of bind"

LMAO!!!!!!!

Understatement of the millenium.

General Custer: "There seem to be Indians in the area"

[LisaM]

5. Yeah right....

I have two friends at work with sons in the military. One is coming back from Iraq in February but NOW is scheduled to go back in August - he previously wasn't scheduled to go back at all - the other one's son was supposed to go to Afghanistan and now he is going to Iraq in August, also. I don't know what's planned for August, but it seems to be the month of choice for sending troops.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

31. Yes, these are some of the ones "beginning to come back" this year.

Only to return, same year.

[Dave Reynolds]

6. Does he believe

that he has any credibility left?

[Redstone]

7. Holy shit, look at that pig

flying past my office window!

And there are the troops, marching home right behind it.

Redstone

[aden_nak]

8. All our troops will be coming home soon. Oh, and I quit.

[warrens]

9. They're already home

Remember Wolfowitz and Perle saying we'd be there six months, a year tops? Welcome home boys.

[h2dg]

11. And they also said

That oil would pay for the war. That America's share to pay for the war would be 1.7 billion dollars. And today they say the search for WMD is over. And admit they never had them. And admit they had no capability to produce them. But moving on Social Security is in crisis and we must destroy it to save it.

[Rose Siding]

10. , he said with the waning authority of a lame duck

[Inland]

12. Someone tell Colin he can stop bullshitting us now. Bush won, he's fired.

[Robbien]

13. As he whines "but I cannot give you a timeline"

What a tool.

Once upon a time this man was respected. Who would have thought he would sink this low.

[blm]

14. Nice distraction, Colin. Hoping it will kill the truth about the draft?

.

[Az_lefty]

15. Troops are returning every year, only to be replaced by more.

[gratuitous]

16. Is it a congenital thing?

I mean, we have Powell telling us one thing, and other administration mouthpieces telling us something else entirely. They can't both be true, but will our media whores point that out? Will they demand that Rumsfeld and Bush stand behind and endorse Powell's remarks? Will they ask about the timetable for the troops return? And will those troops be replaced in greater or lesser numbers by new conscripts? How will those troops return -- on their feet or in a coffin?

You have to track down every possible interpretation and explanation with these weasels: "See all those flag-draped coffins coming through Dover? Told ya Amercan troops would be leaving Iraq"; or "See? We've invaded Syria, and look at all the American troops who left Iraq to do it."

[durablend]

17. Too bad many more will be returning home

In body bags...

[BattyDem]

18. He didn't say they would be returning alive.

:-(

[Historic NY]

19. If they are coming home why is the Army scrounging to get so many

replacements......

[alexisfree]

20. Yeah sure. If they do come home its in coffins..I dont see them coming hom

[LynnTheDem]

21. Why did Franks just say US troops remain in Iraq "3, 5, perhaps 10 yrs"?

Seems to be a difference of opinion there.

[bluedog]

22. HE LIES..................................defense link

Fresh Troops Tabbed for Iraq, Afghanistan Deployment

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2004 – The Defense Department today identified fresh troop units that will deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2005 and 2006.

Some of the troops will be used to maintain a force level of about 138,000 service members in Iraq, DoD spokesman Larry Di Rita said at a Pentagon news briefing.

Those, he noted, don't include the 12,000 additional forces deployed to assist security for the Iraqi elections in January.snip


The fresh troops deployed to Iraq will be used "to maintain this brigade structure that we're currently holding," Di Rita said, which consists of 17 brigades and three division headquarters.

The first new units earmarked for Iraq are slated to arrive in mid-2005, while other units are slated to deploy there at various times through mid-2006.

snip


A list of units identified for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan is available in a DoD news release titled "DoD Announces OEF/OIF Rotational Units" on the department's Web site.

Related Site:
DoD News Release Listing Units Identified for Deployment

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2004/n12142004_2004121410.html

[Just Me]

23. Leave in honour. Tell the damn truth!!!

The neoCONimperialists' plan a PERMANENT MILITARY PRESENCE!!!

Don't continue to skirt around the truth by expressing "grains of fact"!!!

Intentionally withholding the whole truth is a LIE!!!

[Jacobin]

24. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Easy to tell that he made his bones in Viet Nam

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

25. Returning home and then redeploying to Iraq or Afghanistan in a year

Better to be active duty than reservists--those folks will be doing 24 month unit rotations multiple times.

[driver8]

26. I wouldn't believe Powell if he told me "the sky is blue"...

He has shown that he is a habitual liar and will tell the public anything that Bush and Co. want him to.

How does this spineless turd sleep at night?

[leesa]

27. I do believe we have heard this several hundred times before.

Shut up Colin!

[ckramer]

28. I think that's another lie.

US will never leave Iraq.

[MARALE]

29. Yah, In Body Bags

Also we may have a draft, so they can return home to train the draftees

[pinniped]

30. Great, when is the VI day parade?

Moran.

[SodoffBush]

32. Powell's the type of guy who will fuck a sheep before he eats it

And to think he used to be distinguishable from Cheney.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

33. Yeah, he sees some troops returning this year. And more going out.

[VegasWolf]

34. Powell see's dead people. Literally! n/t

[shanti]

35. look into your crystal ball...

powell! where'd he pull THAT from?

[Lucille]

36. Any chance * plans on cutting and running...er "withdrawing with honor"

after the elections, if the democratically elected puppet asks us to leave?

[two gun sid]

37. Colin full of shit

A guy I work with has a son stationed in Iraq at a base west of Baghdad. His unit was supposed to leave just before Christmas and go to Kuwait before returning to the States. They could not leave because the roads they would travel are not safe enough and no units would convoy them out. They are know staying until the end of February. Colin Powell is talking out of his ass.

[NYC]

41. Not safe enough to leave?

It isn't safe enough to continue the search for WMD. Something else wasn't safe enough (can't remember what), and now it isn't safe enough for troops to leave?

Surely this indicates something.

[Vidar]

38. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

[Jacobin]

39. No. No. It's 'true'

Technically. Some will come home on rotation, others will go there to take their place, but "some troops will be coming home by the end of the year".

See how easy it is to be a republican? YOu can lie by telling "the truth"

[daleo]

45. That was my interpretation too.

Who can believe Powell about anything after his U.N. performance? Now when he speaks, I always wonder (metaphorically) "Is that anthrax or new improved Tide detergent in that vial he's holding up?"

[okieinpain]

42. well let me say that I have a daughter in reserves. she's not in

iraqi, but we're afraid that she will be called up.

it might be that colin is seeing troops come home in bags.

[PittPoliSci]

46. they only got part of the headline

the rest of it should read "in bodybags" cause there is no way in hell, if things stay the way they are, that we will remove the troops by the end of 2005.

This whole situation is getting uglier, and it's costing us more lives. I really wish we would've never involved ourselves...

[SKKY]

47. Sure, and he also saw WMD, Iraqis welcoming us as liberators, and free...

...and safe elections in January. I think he really should use his VA benefits and get his eyes checked.