Decider Is Cutting and Running From More Stated Goals - New England Patriots Forums

All_Around_Brown · 04-29-2007, 04:05 PM

For years we've been hearing the policy in Iraq is "as the Iraqis stand up, we stand down." http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/...pts/index.html

Now apparently, in the midst of the tragic shooting at VT, a news story went totally unnoticed how this is no longer our policy priority in Iraq.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17104704.htm

Hmmm...I wonder what the new strategery might be?

If its not training the Iraqi forces, which has been a pretty substantial failure in itself, what is the next BS justification for our continued occupation and future escalation??

Come out and just say it Bush. Its the OIL we're after. Always has been and always will be (until its gone).

All_Around_Brown · 04-30-2007, 12:34 AM

Quote:

But evidence has been building for months that training Iraqi troops is no longer the focus of U.S. policy. Pentagon officials said they know of no new training resources that have been included in U.S. plans to dispatch 28,000 additional troops to Iraq. The officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to discuss the policy shift publicly. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made no public mention of training Iraqi troops on Thursday during a visit to Iraq.

In a reflection of the need for more U.S. troops, the Pentagon decided earlier this month to increase the length of U.S. Army tours in Iraq from 12 to 15 months. The extension came amid speculation that the U.S. commander there, Army Gen. David Petraeus, will ask that the troop increase be maintained well into 2008.

U.S. officials don't say that the training formula - championed by Gen. John Abizaid when he was the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and by Gen. George Casey when he was the top U.S. general in Iraq - was doomed from the start. But they said that rising sectarian violence and the inability of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to unite the country changed the conditions. They say they now must establish security while training Iraqi forces because ultimately, "they are our ticket out of Iraq," as one senior Pentagon official put it.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwash...printstory.jsp