New Report Recommends Iraq Handover in 5 Years

[2rth2pwr]

Source: Washington Post

Panel Also Calls for 50 Percent Troop Reduction Within 3 Years

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 8, 2007; 4:04 PM

In a report to be released Sunday, a panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Institute of Peace calls for a 50 percent reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq within three years and a total withdrawal and handover of security to the Iraqi military in five years.

"The United States faces too many challenges around the world to continue its current level of effort in Iraq, or even the deployment that was in place before the surge," the report says. " . . . It is time to chart a clearer path forward."

The panel includes many of the experts that advised the Iraq Study Group panel led by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Democratic congressman Lee H. Hamilton, which issued its report last December. Many of its recommendations have since been adopted, some reluctantly, by the Bush administration. The U.S. Institute of Peace ran the Baker-Hamilton report and assembled the experts.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801144.html

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U.S. Institute of Peace says 5yrs?

[daninthemoon]

1. 5 years??? what do they say about troop rotation?

[2rth2pwr]

2. Nothing about troop rotation

in article.

"The White House blocked the reconvening of the Baker-Hamilton panel, which was evenly divided among 10 prominent Democrats and Republicans, by urging Baker not to participate, according to U.S. officials. So USIP reconvened the experts who had advised them. The group, which met through the summer, is made up of some two dozen former U.S. officials and ambassadors, former CIA analysts, and Iraq specialists from think tanks and universities."

[mike_c]

3. we need a "piss on that" smilie for occasions like this....

[DRoseDARs]

5. Feel free to copy these; found via Google glorious Google. n/t

Note: These are three separate gifs, not just a single picture.

[Scooter24]

4. Haha! 5 years?

Yeah...and at over $200 Million a day, we're looking at over $1 Trillion in costs not to mention the long term costs associated with the military and their post-war needs.

And God help us all if something dire should happen which would call for the attention of our military forces while still in Iraq.

[JohnnyRingo]

6. The classic "5 year plan" for a 4 year term

In the second half of his presidency, Buxh has had countless goals that he plans will come to fruition in his successor's term:

Balance the budget
Win the war
clean the air
switch to alt energy
and mission to Mars...

He'll claim that "all was on schedule until the Dems got in office". "They raised taxes".

Accomplishments during his presidency:

National "Do not call list"

That's all

[movonne]

7. It's been almost 5 years now....so we are talking a 10 year plan...

[Theduckno2]

8. "...power-sharing, revising the constitution, oil resources, local elections..."

It sounds like we expect to keep changing the rules until we get the Iraq that we want.

I knew that Iraqi oil would figure in their report long before I clicked on the link.

I should think that a copy of this report should be sent to PM Brown as it seems that he has chosen to pull out too soon. There has been no word from a frustrated George Bush.

Where would I be without Saturday Night Live? :evilgrin:

Edit for smilie

[ohio2007]

9. that depends on just who will be around to handover the keys to in 5 yrs

what will the neighborhood look like in 5 yrs to the east , for example

http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-22/0709080921185208.htm

[aquart]

10. Funny. They say "five years." I say, "OUT NOW."

[Warren Stupidity]

11. You wouldn't want to rush into this. nt.

[NYC]

12. Ten years of war = Bush's gift to America.

He'll be remembered.