APNewsBreak: US reviewing Iraq troop pullout pace

[Lasher]

Source: The Associated Press

BAGHDAD — Worries over increased violence fueled by Iraq's political instability have forced U.S. commanders to reconsider the pace of a major pullout this summer without overstepping a deadline to cut the military's presence by nearly half by the end of August.

More than two months after parliamentary elections, the next government has still not been formed, and militants aiming to exploit the void have carried out attacks like Monday's bombings and shootings that killed at least 119 people, in the country's bloodiest day of 2010.

The insurgent threat has prompted military officials to figure how to keep as many troops on the ground, for as long as possible, and still withdraw all but 50,000 U.S. troops by Aug. 31, as ordered last year by President Barack Obama.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jvmAWUYlSdOQZoyLrXyba6cSNpIgD9FKPHEO0

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Events on the ground, don'tcha know.

Edit: Obama promised during the campaign it would take 18 months. Here's something I shared 2 days ago:

18 months would have put the deadline just 1 month and 22 days from now. In February 2009 he said that all but 50,000 of them would be out by August 31, 2010. That deadline was two months later than the one he cited during the campaign. And he's re-classified 50,000 of them as 'non-combat' soldiers so that it will look like they won't be there until the end of 2011 when they will finally come out. Or not.

As a veteran I know there is no such thing as a 'non-combat' soldier. But OK, I'll go with what he said in February 2009: 50,000 or less by August 2010.

The troop level at the end of April this year was 95,000 (scroll to page 19). In January 2009 there were 142,000 US soldiers in Iraq. That means we had a total of 20 months to get 92,000 soldiers out. So far it's taken 16.5 months to get 47,000 soldiers out, an average of 2,849 per month. We'll have to withdraw 45,000 more soldiers to get the troop level down to 50,000 by the new deadline 3.5 months from now. That's 12,857 soldiers per month.

Obama broke his campaign promise of 18 months. And it doesn't look like he's going to keep his February 2009 promise of 50,000 or less by the end of August this year. I hope I'm wrong. We'll see.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=433&topic_id=292056#292183

According to the AP article the number was 92,000 at the end of last week, so 3,000 must have come out since the end of April.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

[Robb]

2. "...and still withdraw all but 50,000 U.S. troops by Aug. 31."

I don't care if they get on a plane on the 30th. But I expect them on that plane.

[Soylent Brice]

5. would be nice were it sooner, but with the situation as is i have to agree with you. n/t

[Arctic Dave]

7. Why wait, all you do is keep open the exposure to hostile events

for the people over there. At this point in the game, what does it matter if Iraq starts THEIR civil war tomorrow, September 1st or the day after they all leave.

[defendandprotect]

10. Totally agree . . . this is nonsense while our Treasury fails and Iraq seethes . . .

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Oregone]

4. The "conditions on the ground" are changing

A slew of experts predicted this meme was going to be used eventually as an excuse to reinvolve the country in Iraq. There has been too much money spent to not get a positive ROI. Under Al Sadr, the oil contracts will not be secure.

They didn't build that embassy for nothing

[Myrina]

8. ... we are so far beyond ROI ...

.... this is and always was about the US having a permanent finger-in-the-political-pie over there. Grrr.

[Oregone]

9. There is no reason to care about politics there, if not to perpetually profit from them

[defendandprotect]

11. Agree . . . more than 20 new bases and a Taj Mahal of a US Embassy . . . !!!

PLUS an aggressive attack on this nation which had nothing to do with 9/11 --

and Bush/Cheney knew that --

We should also get the hell out of Afghanistan --

:)

[WCGreen]

6. Iraq is spinning out of control...

Who the hell thought they would be able to get a peaceful progression to democracy was smoking some real good pot and watching Disney Movies.

Worse was the people in this country who believed that all they had to do was get rid of Saddam to change the place.

Saddam and his thugs kept the peace by brutal tribal force.

The people over there are fighting for power and their lives.

[defendandprotect]

12. Who the heck ever believed our attack on Iraq had anything to do with democracy????

Or that our 8 year occupation has anything to do with democracy?

[WCGreen]

17. So you think that I believed there would be a simple transition to democracy....

The way I saw it was that was the Bush spin all along and that a whole lot of the media and pundits thought that all we needed was an election to hae a democracy.

[Lasher]

13. I was smoking pot and watching Disney movies.

And I knew better.

[Crowman1979]

14. You know why? Because Obama has no balls and caves in at the drop of a hat.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. I think it's worse. I think he's doing what he was put there to do.

(Not by us, of course, but by those who decided that we'd either be voting for Hillary or Barack but definitely no one else.)

[ultracase24]

16. read the first sentence

"More than two months after parliamentary elections, the next government has still not been formed, and militants aiming to exploit the void have carried out attacks like Monday's bombings and shootings that killed at least 119 people, in the country's bloodiest day of 2010."

The reason why the governments has not been formed after 2 months is because of the US government meddling in its affairs to make sure we have our puppets and hacks installed in the new governing body. The entire reason for the instability is because we wont let the Iraqi people govern themselves without our input. The first and foremost thing on the US plate is to ensure continued access to oil contracts and favorable terms with our hand picked people that we want to see in the new Iraqi government. Check out the US embassy in Iraq.

The largest embassy in the entire Middle East. We are not going anywhere and going to draw down to only half our forces. Some withdraw. That is called lying in my book.

[elias49]

20. Absolutely correct! nt

[conspirator]

18. Iraq is just a Colony where the US is pumping out oil that's it. It's not a Country anymore n/t

[RainMickey]

19. Ha! And some of you guys hammered me because I questioned his honesty...

....on this subject. Re-naming combat troops. What a crock. We're there to stay. Get used to it.