Analysis: Bush must demonstrate he has workable plan for Iraq

[leftchick]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-02-01-iraq-bush_x.htm

WASHINGTON — Voting down, security to go. Iraq's first free elections in 50 years now set the stage for President Bush to ratchet up the training of Iraqi security forces and convince Americans he has a viable plan for Iraq, which he is likely to try to do in his State of the Union speech Wednesday.
Without security in Iraq, the exuberance for democracy that Iraqis displayed Sunday while voting will not last. And until Iraqis can fight the insurgency that has plagued their country for more than a year, U.S. troops will have to.

Without tangible signs that the U.S. campaign in Iraq is advancing toward an exit for the 150,000 American troops now there, Americans are likely to grow increasingly discouraged about the war, as polls indicate they had in the run-up to the election.

"The most important thing we can do right now is to get the Iraqi security forces up to speed," said Marine Col. Thomas X. Hammes, an expert on insurgency warfare and author of the acclaimed book on the subject, "The Sling and the Stone." "The Pentagon has said repeatedly they are our ticket out of there."

... I imagine he won't mention the "Permanent Presence" plan.

[leftchick]

1. A Permanent Presence in Iraq.....

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2281&ncid=742&e=5&u=/thenation/20050118/cm_thenation/132132

~snip~

Though the media ignored Kerry's statement and failed to do any substantive follow-up research, his comments were well-grounded in reality. On the day of the debate the Christian Science Monitor spotlighted the findings of defense specialist John Pike, whose website, GlobalSecurity.org, located twelve "enduring bases" in Iraq, including satellite photos and names. In March, the Chicago Tribune reported that US engineers were constructing fourteen such long-term encampments--the number Kerry referred to. The New York Times previously placed the number at four.


While the exact figure may change, suspicions of undisclosed US imperial plans--exemplified by permanent military bases--rightfully linger. Before the war, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz suggested moving US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia into Iraq. In October, a survey by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes found that two-thirds of respondents disapproved of a permanent military presence, even though more than half thought the US would build the bases anyway.


Now comes a report in the New York Sun by Eli Lake revealing that the Pentagon (news - web sites) is building a permanent military communications system in Iraq, a necessary foundation for any lasting troop presence. The new network will comprise twelve communications towers throughout Iraq, linking Camp Victory in Baghdad to other existing (and future) bases across the country, eventually connecting with US bases in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan (news - web sites).


"People need to get realistic and think in terms of our presence being in Iraq for a generation or until democratic stability in the region is reached," Dewey Clarridge, the CIA (news - web sites)'s former chief of Arab operations (and Iran-contra point man), told the Sun.

[cthrumatrix]

8. the press never brings up the fact of 14 army bases....why not?

[LynnTheDem]

2. And the top US General, Franks, says 8-10 years. Don't think he's told

the Iraqis that yet. But I bet within a week they'll figure that out themselves.

Via la resistance.

[aikido15]

3. They already know...

and they are ready for it. Watch US get the shit kicked out of them.

[Tesla]

4. lets go find Osama bin Hiding!!

We can back out of Iraq gracefully........

Nawwww...........

Haliburton needs the $80B to cover the $9B missing, and then they have to pay all this overtime......and we have to get some new presidential helicopters and planes..........and we need a heart transplant......no we have to stay.

[ally_sc]

9. can't imagine anyone will mention OBL

but bushie is full of &*(^ and surprises...or always predictable on some subjects...

[aikido15]

11. Yep...anybody seen...

Bin Laden? What a joke, he is a phantom terrorist, flunky for the real 9/11 architechs, Bush & Co.

[leftchick]

5. Link to PERMANENT US bases in Iraq...

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/iraq-intro.htm

Iraq Facilities
2004 - April
2003 - November
Enduring Bases
Green Zone Baghdad
Camp Anaconda Balad
Camp Cooke Taji
Camp Ferrin-Huggins Baghdad
Post Freedom Mosul
Camp Victory Baghdad airfield
Camp Marez Mosul airfield
Camp Renegade Kirkuk
Camp Speicher Tikrit area
Fallujah area
Nasiriyah area
between Irbil and Kirkuk
#13 ??
#14 ??

~snip~

A 20 April 2003 report in The New York Times asserted that "the U.S. is planning a long-term military relationship with the emerging government of Iraq, one that would grant the Pentagon access to military bases and project American influence into the heart of the unsettled region." The report, citing anonymous sources, referred to one base at Baghdad's international airport, another near Al-Nasiriyah in the south , the third at the H-1 airstrip in the western desert, and the fourth at Bashur AB in the north.

There had been several statements at that time about the possible duration of the US military presence in Iraq. Mr. Richard Perle mentioned six months; Ahmad Chalabi, two years.

American officials have tried to make the point that the US presence in Iraq will not be a permanent or long-term one. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a 21 April 2003 press conference said that any suggestion that the United States is planning a permanent military presence in Iraq is "inaccurate and unfortunate." Rumsfeld said "I have never, that I can recall, heard the subject of a permanent base in Iraq discussed in any meeting. ... The likelihood of it seems to me to be so low that it does not surprise me that it's never been discussed in my presence, to my knowledge. Why do I say it's low? Well, we've got all kinds of options and opportunities in that part of the world to locate forces, it's not like we need a new place. We have plenty of friends and plenty of ability to work with them and have locations for things that help to contribute to stability in the region. ... Rumsfeld: I think there is a down side. I think any impression that is left, which that article left, that the United States plans some sort of a permanent presence in that country, I think is a signal to the people of that country that's inaccurate and unfortunate, because we don't plan to function as an occupier, we don't plan to prescribe to any new government how we ought to be arranged in their country."

On 23 March 2004 it was reported that "U.S. engineers are focusing on constructing 14 "enduring bases," long-term encampments for the thousands of American troops expected to serve in Iraq for at least two years.... The number of U.S. military personnel in Iraq, between 105,000 and 110,000, is expected to remain unchanged through 2006.. the US plans to operate from former Iraqi bases in Baghdad, Mosul, Taji, Balad, Kirkuk and in areas near Nasiriyah, near Tikrit, near Fallujah and between Irbil and Kirkuk... enhance airfields in Baghdad and Mosul..."

[Ian David]

6. Bush's Exit Strategy

With an 80% turn-out, the first "democratic elections" in Vietnam were followed four months later by the Tet Offensive of 1967. Iraqi elections were on the 37th anniversary of The Tet Offensive.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=7337643
http://secretsinbaghdad.blogspot.com /

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq's Jan. 30 elections fall on the 37th anniversary of the Tet offensive, the Vietnam War turning point that could hold lessons for Iraqi insurgents and U.S. policy makers anticipating more violence that could test American resolve.

Iraq's insurgents lack the coordination, manpower and resources to execute the equivalent of the jolting attacks launched by communist forces in nearly every major city in U.S.-backed South Vietnam on the nights of Jan. 30 and Jan. 31, 1968, experts said.



But they said the experience of the Tet offensive may show Iraqi rebels how to prevail against a vastly stronger U.S. force, by using audacious attacks to score psychological and political triumphs.

"The fundamental lesson of the Tet offensive is not the immediacy of the event, but it is about the political will of the United States, and how you grind at that and you never let up on that, never lose focus on it," said Marine Col. Thomas Hammes, a leading military expert on insurgencies.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=7337643

[leftchick]

7. very timely....

wouldn't it have been nice to have one "news" show in the US devote some attention (with relevant film footage) to these very timely comparisons. One would have to be an idiot to not see how Iraq will turn out.

<sigh>

[Ian David]

10. And this is what Bush WANTS

What we think of as a "failure" is a success to Bush.

He sees himself as fulfilling Biblical prophesy to bring about The War of the Apocalypse.

And the more I see, the more convinced I am that he's convinced he is NOT on the side of Jesus.

I don't believe in all that Bible-stuff, but Bush and his pals do. And following the blueprint laid-out in Revelations is guaranteed to destroy the world-- with or without supernatural intervention.

[leftchick]

12. I watched The Omen the other night...

parts I and II. I could not watch part III, it was getting way too familiar.

:scared:

[leftchick]

13. 14 `enduring bases' set in Iraq....

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040323-enduring-bases.htm

From the ashes of abandoned Iraqi army bases, U.S. military engineers are overseeing the building of an enhanced system of American bases designed to last for years.

Last year, as troops poured over the Kuwait border to invade Iraq, the U.S. military set up at least 120 forward operating bases. Then came hundreds of expeditionary and temporary bases that were to last between six months and a year for tactical operations while providing soldiers with such comforts as e-mail and Internet access.

Now U.S. engineers are focusing on constructing 14 "enduring bases," long-term encampments for the thousands of American troops expected to serve in Iraq for at least two years. The bases also would be key outposts for Bush administration policy advisers.

As the U.S. scales back its military presence in Saudi Arabia, Iraq provides an option for an administration eager to maintain a robust military presence in the Middle East and intent on a muscular approach to seeding democracy in the region. The number of U.S. military personnel in Iraq, between 105,000 and 110,000, is expected to remain unchanged through 2006, according to military planners.

[flordehinojos]

14. Why must bush demonstrate anything? He is not going to.

He is the most arrogant dictator SOB that ever walked this earth in my life time and he is going to do whatever he well pleases. His Poppy is going to see to that--you bet your bottom dollar on it...plus the media is going to enable whatever the arrogant SOB wants to do without much questioning or hard demands. So, again, why must Bush demonstrate anything?

[leftchick]

15. kick

:kick:

[suegeo]

16. Why didn't he need a workable plan before he invaded?

NOW? Now he needs a workable plan?