I was right (U.S. says more GIs may be needed in Iraq)

[bluestateguy]

Many people, including on this board, insisted that there would be this dramatic draw down of forces from Iraq prior to the election. Bush and his neo-con cabal would declare "victory" in the war.

I said it wouldn't happen. I knew it wouldn't happen.

I was right.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061024/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_061024185442

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two weeks before U.S. midterm elections, American officials unveiled a timeline Tuesday for Iraq's Shiite-led government to take specific steps to calm the world's most dangerous capital and said more U.S. troops might be needed to quell the bloodshed.

U.S. officials previously said they were satisfied with troop levels and had expected to make significant reductions by year's end. But a surge in sectarian killings, which welled up this past summer, forced them to reconsider.

At a rare joint news conference with the American ambassador, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, said additional U.S. troops could come from inside or outside Iraq to "improve basic services for the population of Baghdad."

"Now, do we need more troops to do that? Maybe. And, as I've said all along, if we do, I will ask for the troops I need, both coalition and Iraqis," Casey said. There are currently 144,000 U.S. forces in Iraq.


more

[Monkeyman]

1. Yep my family just got stop lost for the fourth time

[msongs]

2. How many middle east nations are helping "quell the bloodshed"?

saudi arabia?

kuwait?

syria?

pakistan?

oh wait, they are dictatorships, not much interested in democracy talking hold in their neighborhood.

iran?

no, it's all in favor of the shiite revolution taking over all of iraq.

gee maybe the iraqis could quell the bloodshed themselves since they are the perpatrators of it these days.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[fishnfla]

3. I think they are talking about more troops in Baghdad

from elsewhere in Iraq

I also think they are trying to have it both ways:

Pretending to not stay the course by staying the course
and staying the course by more of the same course

of course they could be pulling the we'll stand down whne they stand up card too.

It's effed up. They are trying to win the election by playing with fire

[catmandu57]

4. I knew it also

I had the feeling that something like this month was in the pipe, even if they do transfer strength to baghdad, that's going to leave a vaccum in another part of the country. It's a giant game of whack a mole and we're losing.