WP: In Iraq, No Clear Finish Line

[grytpype]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081101837.html

In Iraq, No Clear Finish Line
Timing Is Muddy For U.S. Pullout

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 12, 2005; Page A01

The Bush administration has sent seemingly conflicting signals in recent days over the duration of the U.S. deployment to Iraq, openly discussing contingency plans to withdraw as many as 30,000 of 138,000 troops by spring, then cautioning against expectations of any early pullout. Finally yesterday, President Bush dismissed talk of a drawdown as just "speculation and rumors" and warned against "withdrawing before the mission is complete."

If the public was left confused, it may be no more unsure than the administration itself, as some government officials involved in Iraq policy privately acknowledge.

Administration officials have all but given up any hope of militarily defeating the insurgents with U.S. forces, instead aiming only to train and equip enough Iraqi security forces to take over the fight themselves. At the same time, they believe that the mission depends on building a new political infrastructure, a project facing its most decisive test in the next three days as deeply divided Iraqis struggle to draft a constitution by a Monday deadline.

In the face of all that, Bush is trying to buy time. After meeting with his national security team at his ranch near Crawford, Tex., yesterday, Bush again beseeched the public to stick with his strategy despite continuing mayhem on the ground, exemplified most recently by the deaths of 16 Marines from the same Ohio-based unit in the past two weeks. Overall, more than 1,800 U.S. troops have died.

.... much more at link

[wellst0nev0ter]

1. And If And When The Bushies Decide To Declare Victory And Go Home

I'll bet the WP will act like the happy little propogandist for the Bush agenda that they are.

[Barrett808]

2. Really, this story could be so much more strongly stated

I mean, "polls suggest an increasingly unpopular war"? Come on!

[SeanQuinn]

3. No clear finishline? ARE YOU SERIOUS, WP?! nt

[Barrett808]

4. Some choice quotes

"They want to start withdrawing because they can feel the heat here in the United States," said Larry Diamond, a onetime U.S. adviser in Iraq who has since written "Squandered Victory," a scathing appraisal of the postwar occupation. "They know the tolerance for American casualties and this ongoing bloodshed is not going to go on forever."

"It's a race against time because by the end of this coming summer we can no longer sustain the presence we have now," said retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, who visited Iraq most recently in May and briefed Cheney, Rice and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "This thing, the wheels are coming off it."

[FloridaPat]

5. The finish line is under the sellers signature on the oil well sales

receipt.

[Barrett808]

6. Word. n/t

[rogue_bandit]

7. Wasn't there a report due last week?

Maybe two weeks ago? Something about the Bush adminsitration giving congress a report on progress and plans?