Question: How will we evacuate 130,000 troops when Iraq spirals into...

[BeyondThePale]

open civil war?

As it is, we do not control the roads, the airport just had an "incident", and it seems like our troops are tending to stay "hunkered down" right now.

We are already overwhelmed by simmering civil war and sectarian violence; so, just how are we going to get everyone out when it becomes even worse?

Oops, I suppose that would requiring planning and an exit strategy!

[valerief]

1. Will the Halliburton contractors make it out, too?

Are there more of them than troops?

[merh]

2. You are confusing this administration with adminstrations of the past

you know, ones that actually cared about the troops and its citizens and the image of the USA.

:freak:

[BeyondThePale]

3. Good point -- I keep forgetting that! (eom)

[Benhurst]

4. I think you have everyone go to the roof of the American embassy, then

take them out by helicopter.

Deja vu all over again.

[BeyondThePale]

5. Not sure that there is a big enough helicopter! (eom)

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Evacuate the troops? Heh, heh.

Why would we do that? Do you realize how mentally fucked up those guys are right now, and how physically fucked they're gonna be when the long-term effects of the Depleted Uranium hit? Why should we bring back a buncha guys that are gonna do nothing but plug up the VA system for the next 60 years and probly vote Democrat on top of it?

Good luck guys. We'll be prayin' for ya all--well, at least for the fundie Christians among ya.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Deja-vu all over again?

[necso]

8. We aren't.

That is, the administration has no intentions of pulling the troops out, nor will they likely be able to do so (completely), if the situation turns really serious... from whatever cause (I can think of one that looms even more ominously than all-out civil war).

Nor do we (likely) have the readily available in-theater forces necessary to relieve those forces presently in Iraq. (Assembly alone might take months.)

The neocon philosophy (and mindset) is essentially insanity, in that it's little concerned with reality, the effects of its acts in that reality, negative feedback from reality, etc.

[BeyondThePale]

13. Yeah but, what about liberators and flowers and democratic dominos?

[NNN0LHI]

9. Keep our mouths shut and continue the normal rotations with one change

The rotations out continue as normal but the rotations back come to a halt. I think thats what is going on now.

Don

[Divernan]

10. And at some point, pull a Dunkirk mass evacuation of those remaining.

In 1940, as the Germans were sweeping into France, the British expeditionary force and some of the French forces were separated from the main body of the French army and were "pincered" by the Germans into the French port area of Dunkirk. Fortunately for the Brits, the Germans stopped advancing because the terrain wasn't too amenable to their Panzer divisions and planned to use their air power and some ground troops to capture/kill the Brits. In a period of two months - I think it was June and July, 5 nations combined efforts to evacuate 338,226 UK and French forces by sea. Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Poland got this incredible job done. If the Brits had lost their expeditionary force, it is likely that a different government would have come to power in England, likely to be similar to the Vichy "govt." of occupied France.

Among the many major differences with Iraq (troops spread out throughout the country; no sea route of escape) is that the Dunkirk evacuation was planned and executed by The Greatest Generation - led by giants like Churchill, Eisenhower, etc. The safety of our troops relies on far lesser generals (seems like the only ones left are kissing up to Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush) and anti-statesmen like Bush & Cheney.

[ladjf]

11. There is a time to "hold" and a time to "fold em". Don't think

for a minute that the bush admin gives a damn about what's best for U.S. and Iraqi.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. They won't. They'll pick a side and call it "legitimate".

They'll use the backing of American troops to wield power over the side they back. Probably some coalition of the Shia and Kurds against the Sunnis. A short term "solution" to a lost war that provides cover for the politicians who backed it.