Troop withdrawal bills: political reality versus naiivete

[steve2470]

I have wanted our troops home ever since I learned the truth about the Iraq war (when I first joined DU). I remember posting as such, and some DU'ers stated that we had an obligation to stay.

Let's consider a hypothetical scenario. Let's stipulate that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid both pushed immediate withdrawal bills. They wasted no time on trying to sway the more "stubborn" Democrats or Republicans to join their effort. They added no pork projects to the bills to lure the stubborn to join the effort.

Would an immediate withdrawal bill pass, and if not, why not ? My own uneducated hunch is that, no, it would not pass, sadly to say. What do you think ? on edit: By "immediate", I mean that the military starts NOW to formulate and execute a safe-as-possible evacuation, that is funded by Congress.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. No it woudl not pass

this is the best compromise they could get

One more thing, and this is the military reality... it will take that long to pull out, due all the logistics involved

[Ghost in the Machine]

2. logistics.. i tried to tell someone the same thing last night

Yes, getting them out of harms way is what is best, I agree 100%
but the very cold and simple reality is that it would be a logistics nightmare to just pull up stakes and leave. This isn't M*A*S*H*, and we can't evacuate in one day. By cutting funding for the war, you're also leaving the troops hanging out to dry. Where's the money going to come from to get them home? What are they going to have to protect themselves with against attacks?

Let's look a little closer.

How long will it take just to get all of the tanks off the ground and out of country?

How about the bradley fighting vehicles?

The supply trucks? (click link for more)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=499998&mesg_id=501059

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I read your post

and Randy made the point today as well...

Having had to plan for a disaster, logistics is logistics, I have an idea of what is involved

For the record, MASH units were designed to be able to do that, and their successors are as well, but they have integral transport and as you pointed out, they are small

They are self contained.

Moving the initial invasion force took three months, and nobody was shooting at us, and Halliburton started with the bases I believe six months in advance of intial forces

Pulling out also involves force protecion, since it will be under fire.

So yes, you get it...

;-)

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Why even bother bringing home tanks and bradleys and stuff? We've built 16

military bases across Iraq. Just leave it all nice and neat on the bases and turn them over to the Iraqis. Take in the biggest transport planes we have and move the troops out.