US-Iraqi task force to decide on US troop exit

[ECH1969]

BAGHDAD –– US and Iraqi authorities are to set up a body to decide on the crucial question of how and when US troops will hand over security in the war-torn country to Iraqi forces, the US embassy said Sunday.

The new joint task force will meet next week and report to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari on handover plans in 60 days, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in a statement.

"The joint task force will establish criteria and conditions that will help determine when Iraqi security forces ... will be capable of assuming full responsibility to secure Iraq," the new ambassador said.

"The handover will start with cities which fulfill the conditions," said a senior Iraqi official who declined to be named, without saying what the conditions were.

http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=18039

[bemildred]

1. Stall, stall, stall. nt

[skooooo]

2. I see this as a positive step..

These things don't happen magically.

[NNN0LHI]

3. One small problem

I don't think the "Iraqi authorities" we installed will live long if US forces ever leave. Perhaps some others here have a different opinion on this?

Don

[daleo]

8. I certainly wouldn't want to be their insurance provider.

U.S. troops do have to leave, as no government can have legitimacy while they are there. But, the transition may be very bloody. We peace protest marchers said as much before Bush launched this travesty.

[bemildred]

4. It's a stall.

We got in there magically, we will get out magically, once the decision is made by whomever makes it. In the meantime we get these political dog-and-pony shows intended to distract the Rubes and stall for more time. The "Iraqi Consitutional Process" is another such pile of steaming bullshit, and that is not going anywhere either. Anybody that has been paying the slightest attention to this mess can tell that it has been one fast, steep slide downhill from the day we "Took Baghdad". The War is and was always illegal, no legitimate institutions can come from it without the consent of the Iraqi people, and they are not now and will not ever give such consent to a foreign occupation. Until we leave, we get bombs.

[leftchick]

9. We will leave magically

Like we did here...



I hope the Green Zone has a bigger and better heli-pad.

[joemurphy]

5. A Revised Pottery Barn Metaphor on Iraq:

We break it, you own it.

[MidwestTransplant]

7. I remember when Pottery Barn issued a statement

denying it was their policy after Powell said the "you break it you bought it!"

[Supersedeas]

16. has the Pottery Barn changed ownership now the Condi is Sec of State

[Warren Stupidity]

6. misleading headline

The article actually says nothing about US troop exit, it talks about setting a timetable for 'handing over security' to Iraqi troops. That could simply be a bureaucratic shift in the chain of command, with Iraqi HQ being in charge of day-to-day operations while US forces remain in their 14 or so large permanent military bases maintaining control over the strategic oil fields and assuring that the shiite government doesn't stray too far from the fold.

[leftchick]

10. nail meets head Warren

and I love your name.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. ty

:blush:

Confronting the vast right wing idiocy as Warren Stupidity since 2001.

[Robeson]

11. Does that also mean we will be turning over the bases we've built there?..

...if not, then we are still occupying the country, with no doubt, U.S. *cough* allies, i.e. stooges, continuing in power.

Also, this little tidbit from the article, just in time for mid-term elections, "Washington hopes to hand over control of security to Iraqi forces in 14 out of 18 provinces in the country by early next year, allowing it to slash US-led troop levels to 66,000 from 176,000."

[AlamoDemoc]

14. You have a valid point there

leaving the city and occupying the outskirts of Baghdad isn't exactly what I would call a withdrawal.

[pfitz59]

12. Zalmay Khalilzad ?

Didn't he sign PNAC letter proposing world domination?

[OfireitupO]

15. Once the US pulls out

The insurgency will come out of the woodworks and take over the country.


This IS an unwinnable war, another Vietnam if you ask me. Unless we plan on keeping large amounts of troops there for 50 years, which we cant unless theres a draft, Iraq will not be a democracy.

And if theres a draft the Bush administration is toast, there would be millions of protesters in DC.