Pentagon Weighing Report On Anbar (US forces 5+ years in Iraq?)

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091101005.html

Pentagon Weighing Report On Anbar
Violence Negated Plan to Pull Troops

The Pentagon is taking "very seriously" a classified intelligence report concluding that the U.S. military has fought to a stalemate in Iraq's western Anbar province as political conditions also worsen in the "epicenter" of the country's Sunni insurgency, a senior defense official said yesterday.

In congressional testimony on security in Iraq, Pentagon officials also said the rise of "ethno-sectarian violence" has laid the conditions for civil war, aborting plans by U.S. commanders to begin withdrawing U.S. troops. Gaps in the capabilities of Iraqi security forces leave open the prospect that U.S. forces may have to stay in the country for as many as five or more years, they said.

Calling Anbar "a very hot zone on the battlefield," Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric S. Edelman said the secret report on the volatile, strategic province was gaining high-level attention at the Pentagon.

"It is an important report. We've taken it very seriously," Edelman told a panel of the House Government Reform Committee. "This is an operational assessment by one very good intel officer," he said, adding that "a lot of us are looking at it very closely" and are seeking a further assessment on Anbar from top U.S. commanders in Iraq.

[Kagemusha]

1. Oh yeah, very seriously indeed:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2506255

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. US has no intention of leaving, they ain't building bases for the Iraqis!!

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.
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With over a dozen Military bases nearing completion,

The USA is now promising a pittance for infrastructure, schools and hospitals(mostly damaged by megatons of bombs from the US)

USA ain't leaving - not voluntarily anyways.

They are still in Germany, Japan and another 120 countries that they set up "temporary" bases for one reason or another.

Iraq is their major toehold in the ME, and Afghanistan is the same - they ain't leaving.

Hell, we even got them in MY country . .

(sigh)

[karlrschneider]

3. In other words, Rummy hasn't read it.

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