[RowansDad]

Just in case you missed this bit of information that may have been lost in the Paris Hilton crisis....

"This goal, drawn from recent interviews with more than 20 U.S. military officers and other officials here, including senior commanders, strategists and analysts, remains in the early planning stages. It is based on officials' assessment that a sharp drawdown of troops is likely to begin by the middle of next year, with roughly two-thirds of the current force of 150,000 moving out by late 2008 or early 2009. The questions officials are grappling with are not whether the U.S. presence will be cut, but how quickly, to what level and to what purpose.

"One of the guiding principles, according to two officials here, is that the United States should leave Iraq more intelligently than it entered. Military officials, many of whom would be interviewed only on the condition of anonymity, say they are now assessing conditions more realistically, rejecting the "steady progress" mantra of their predecessors and recognizing that short-term political reconciliation in Iraq is unlikely."

More here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...901464_pf.html

 

[timneh_mom]

No surprise there.

 

[RowansDad]

Indeed.

And more Through the Looking Glass information coming out of Iraq...

Check out these juxtaposed stories that were published over the weekend:

U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies

"With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.

"American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at least four areas of central and north-central Iraq where the insurgency has been strong. In some cases, the American commanders say, the Sunni groups are suspected of involvement in past attacks on American troops or of having links to such groups.

***

"But critics of the strategy, including some American officers, say it could amount to the Americans' arming both sides in a future civil war."

From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/wo...gewanted=print

What could possibly go wrong you might ask?

Whoops:

Tribal Coalition in Anbar Said to Be Crumbling

"A tribal coalition formed to oppose the extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq, a development that U.S. officials say has reduced violence in Iraq's troubled Anbar province, is beginning to splinter, according to an Anbar tribal leader and a U.S. military official familiar with tribal politics.

"In an interview in his Baghdad office, Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, 35, a leader of the Dulaim confederation, the largest tribal organization in Anbar, said that the Anbar Salvation Council would be dissolved because of growing internal dissatisfaction over its cooperation with U.S. soldiers and the behavior of the council's most prominent member, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha. Suleiman called Abu Risha a "traitor" who "sells his beliefs, his religion and his people for money."

From:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...001453_pf.html

 

[RowansDad]

And after the recent bombings at the al-Askari mosque in Samarra, these benchmarks probably got a lot farther....

Iraqis Are Failing to Meet U.S. Benchmarks

"Iraq's political leaders have failed to reach agreements on nearly every law that the Americans have demanded as benchmarks, despite heavy pressure from Congress, the White House and top military commanders. With only three months until progress reports are due in Washington, the deadlock has reached a point where many Iraqi and American officials now question whether any substantive laws will pass before the end of the year.

"Kurds have blocked a vote in Parliament on a new oil law. Shiite clerics have stymied an American-backed plan for reintegrating former Baathists into government. Sunnis are demanding that a constitutional review include more power for the next president.

"And even if one or two of the proposals are approved - the oil law appears the most likely, officials said - doubts are spreading about whether the current benchmarks can ever halt the cycle of violence gripping Iraq's communities."

From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/wo...gewanted=print

 

[violafemme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RowansDad "One of the guiding principles, according to two officials here, is that the United States should leave Iraq more intelligently than it entered. Military officials, many of whom would be interviewed only on the condition of anonymity, say they are now assessing conditions more realistically, rejecting the "steady progress" mantra of their predecessors and recognizing that short-term political reconciliation in Iraq is unlikely." ]

It's hard to imagine doing anything less intelligently then how we entered Iraq, but it's also hard to imagine this administration allowing any kind of real intelligence to play a part in how we do anything over there.......