Ambassador: Plan on troops in Iraq into 2009

[unhappycamper]

Ambassador Ryan Crocker in an interview with The Associated Press on Feb. 1 said that American combat troops will be needed in Iraq at least into 2009 to battle a resilient al-Qaida and still vibrant insurgency.


Ambassador: Plan on troops in Iraq into 2009
By Anne Gearan and Matthew Lee - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Feb 1, 2008 21:39:37 EST

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s top diplomat in Iraq said Friday that the U.S. plans to keep combat troops there into 2009, seen as the tipping point for establishing the nation’s long-term security, and he offered no deadline for a full withdrawal.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker told The Associated Press that he can’t make any promises if, as the Democratic candidates have signaled, the next president pulls forces out faster or in greater numbers.

Crocker said America remains “a center of gravity” in Iraq almost five years after invasion, and that violence and political development both hinge to a considerable degree on whether U.S. forces remain there.

Crocker said he and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, would make the best of any change in plans ordered from the top.

“Obviously, we’re not the ones who make the policy decisions — not in this administration and not in the next one,” Crocker said. “If someone wants to reset the conditions, then obviously we’ll do the best we can within the context but those aren’t assumptions that we start with.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_crocker_iraq_080201/

[Submariner]

1. As Cheney would say; "You just go F*ck yourself Ambassador"

On January 20, 2009, we will start to clean up the mess you and your dickhead buddies have made over the last 7 years, so try not to mess it up anymore than you have.

And if you think your stalling of the ending Bush's Iraq clusterf*ck will mean the republicans did not lose the Iraq war, then you're dreaming.