NBC: Pentagon plans for an Iraqi civil war (including withdrawal)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11947773/

Pentagon and military officials say Iraq's not fighting a civil war yet, but warn that Iraqi security forces and the government could still collapse, dragging the country into one. So the U.S. military is drafting a series of contingency plans to deal with that very ominous possibility.

Military officials tell NBC News the first objective, however, is to head off a civil war. The U.S. military hopes to keep Iraqi security forces from taking sides in the sectarian violence by pressuring the Iraqi government to crack down on any rogue elements within the police or military.

The second option: U.S. forces could again be sent into combat against sectarian militias, which military officials say would require an increase in the number of American soldiers and Marines in Iraq.

And the last resort, if violence is spinning out of countrol: Military officials say they would also have to consider the possible withdrawal of American forces.

[rsmith6621]

1. Hmmmmmm

And the last resort, if violence is spinning out of countrol: Military officials say they would also have to consider the possible withdrawal of American forces.


Especially if in August it looks like the PUGS are certianly going to be smeared in November....


Predictable...

[Drum]

7. August is W's vacation period, isn't it? nt

[Rose Siding]

2. Pentagon plans for an Iraqi civil war

By Jim Miklaszewski
Correspondent
NBC News

WASHINGTON - Pentagon and military officials say Iraq's not fighting a civil war yet, but warn that Iraqi security forces and the government could still collapse, dragging the country into one. So the U.S. military is drafting a series of contingency plans to deal with that very ominous possibility.

Military officials tell NBC News the first objective, however, is to head off a civil war. The U.S. military hopes to keep Iraqi security forces from taking sides in the sectarian violence by pressuring the Iraqi government to crack down on any rogue elements within the police or military.

The second option: U.S. forces could again be sent into combat against sectarian militias, which military officials say would require an increase in the number of American soldiers and Marines in Iraq.

And the last resort, if violence is spinning out of countrol: Military officials say they would also have to consider the possible withdrawal of American forces.
....
Gen. William Wallace, the top military commander for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, blames it on a series of miscalculations from the start.

"I do fault myself and others for not questioning, perhaps, or challenging some of the assumptions that were made," says Wallace.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11947773/from/RS.2/

[babylonsister]

3. So they are proving that the VP and P are lying? Shucks.

More loathing here. That's it!

[libodem]

8. What a huge responsibility to make such difficult decisions

of course we wouldn't be making them if we hadn't gone in there in the first place. What a burden to have responsibility for sending troops into a wholesale slaughter or getting them the hell out of there. Man, and then mixing in the politics of when, where, and how this affects elections. Some president after, George, will have to make the decision. He said no pull out on his watch. They are digging in over there with lots of permanent bases. The troops are over there to protect the oil production. It ought to be made private and let the Iraqis and the contractors and Halliburton work it out. They ought to have to buy those bases. The American people should have that tax money back...returned to our national treasury. Our version of Democracy has turned into Anarchy and civil war. If Iraq wants to do business with the Oil companies let them do business. My tax dollars have no business subsidizing the welfare of oil companies with gigantic quarterly profit margins. My government is not meant to be a negotiator, go between, moderator, between the Iraq government and Big Oil. This whole war is a sham and being fought on false pretenses in the behalf of the Oil lobbists.

[LynnTheDem]

4. But BUSH just said things in Iraq are IMPROVING.

Ya mean he was just fulla SHIT???! :wow:

bush; THE stupidest MFing war criminal. EVER.

[IndianaGreen]

5. I can visualize the helicopters picking up reporters from the hotel's roof

as we beat a hasty retreat from Iraq.

FUBAR!

[Buck Rabbit]

16. Heh, They'll leave the reporters.

It will be after all, their fault for not reporting the good news.

[IsItJustMe]

6. Yeah, the chimp said happy days were hear again.

[MrPrax]

9. Why do I think...

that civil war could probably be prevented IF the US withdrew?

The Iraqis are figuring it out...the US is never leaving.


Iraqis Think U.S. in Their Nation to Stay
....

Are the Americans here to stay? Air Force mechanic Josh Remy is sure of it as he looks around Balad.

"I think we'll be here forever," the 19-year-old airman from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., told a visitor to his base.

The Iraqi people suspect the same. Strong majorities tell pollsters they'd like to see a timetable for U.S. troops to leave, but believe Washington plans to keep military bases in their country.

The question of America's future in Iraq looms larger as the U.S. military enters the fourth year of its war here, waged first to oust President
Saddam Hussein, and now to crush an Iraqi insurgency.

....
"The coalition forces are moving outside the cities while continuing to provide security support to the Iraqi security forces," English said.

The move away from cities, perhaps eventually accompanied by U.S. force reductions, will lower the profile of U.S. troops, frequent targets of roadside bombs on city streets. Officers at Al-Asad Air Base, 10 desert miles from the nearest town, say it hasn't been hit by insurgent mortar or rocket fire since October.

Al-Asad will become even more isolated. The proposed 2006 supplemental budget for Iraq operations would provide $7.4 million to extend the no-man's-land and build new security fencing around the base, which at 19 square miles is so large that many assigned there take the Yellow or Blue bus routes to get around the base, or buy bicycles at a PX jammed with customers.

AP Lots of Detail in the story--good read

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. "I think we'll be here forever," Think Germany and Japan

.
.
.

USA is like a virus

It never leaves ya unless "treated"

And noone has got the balls yet to evict the only country that has used nuclear weapons

ON A COUNTRY THAT WAS TRYING TO SURRENDER!!

The bully on the block is still winning

But his time will come

History as far as recorded time reads

"The rise and FALL of the ____________ empire"

United States of America is next

Count on it

[MrPrax]

11. Might be worst than that...

You know if you start playing with the WW1 era...the US domestically is starting to look like the Weimar Republic, where the legislative branch was also rendered useless and contempible by the executive branch.

The US seems to be passing through to military dictatorship without Hindenburg's resignation.

It's like an oil exec said, "don't think of Iraq as a country any more, think of it as a military base with a huge oil reserve" at the center of the world.

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. Iraq . . . "a military base with a huge oil reserve"

.
.
.

Sounds like a PNACers wet dream come true

(sigh)

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. Even if it all calmed down tomorrow, and there weren't any more attacks

for months, that's no guarantee that all hell wouldn't bust loose a year from now.

[mmonk]

14. Will the Pentagon rebel against our neocon masters?

[SLCPUNK]

15. Oh.........

So now they are ready to cut n run?

[Jacobin]

17. I believe its called "advancing to the rear"

A valuable military manuever in times like Viet Nam and IraqNam.

The sooner you learn that you are holding a chain saw by the wrong end, the quicker one should let go.