Time To Cut And Run In Iraq, It Seems?

Source: AP News via Yahoo News

The Pentagon wants to pull increasing numbers of troops out of harm's way in Iraq.

Let me rephrase that--Congressmen and a battered GOP on the hill are worried about re-elections and their job security admist steeply-falling polling on the war in Iraq (Vietnam anyone?).

WASHINGTON--The Pentagon wants to pull increasing numbers of American troops out of the line of fire in Iraq, but three years after the invasion this latest evolution in the U.S. military's mission will depend largely on whether Iraqi security forces can handle it.

Whether there will be the first sustained decline in American casualties since the insurgency took hold in late summer 2003 depends on how quickly and fully U.S. troops' roles are changed. So far more than 2,300 American troops have died in the campaign, with more than 17,000 wounded.

Though the stated goal of U.S. officials is to make a substantial withdrawal of troops this year, it is not yet clear that the Iraqis will prove ready--politically or militarily--to take on the added responsibility. A Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine set off sectarian violence that has slowed the process of forming a permanent government in Baghdad, more than three months after December's elections.

This week the outlook was altered by two developments. The Pentagon announced it was sending 700 more U.S. troops into Iraq from Kuwait, and it launched a large assault on suspected insurgent territory near Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Even Rumsfield says that this will probably fail.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld alluded to this in a Feb. 17 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, when he said the Pentagon must keep pushing the Iraqis to stand on their own:

"We're going to have to pull out of some pieces of real estate and turn over things to Iraqis. And they're going to drop the ball; I mean, let's face it. And we're going to have to step in, go back in and fix it, and then turn it back over again. And it's going to be three steps forward and one step back."

The Iraqi forces could simply "drop the ball". What's the worst that could happen? Genocide...maybe civil war?

Maj. Rodrigo E. Mateo, who led a team of U.S. military advisers in Iraq, gives a glaring endorsement of "Operation: Up a Creek Without a Paddle"...or "Operation: Extreme Redundancy," as some call it.

Mateo and other former Army trainers said in recent interviews that the quality of Iraqi recruits has varied widely.

"A lot of people joined (the Iraqi military) because that's the best opportunity they have to feed their families and to earn a living," said Lt. Col. Reginald E. Allen, a trainer in Iraq in 2004.

"If they get in that situation and the training is too rough for them or does not adhere to their normal cultural standards where they get a certain amount of time off...then they're going to jump ship," Allen said.

My, my...look at the quagmire we (the U.S.) have created. Job well done, gentlemen. The CEOs of Exxon and BP salute you. Time to cut your losses and go after the next "Axis of Oil" in the scourge of freedom.

(Watch out Canada, Mexico, and Iran. The oil-hungry political puppets are on the prowl.)

Tags: [Pentagon pulling troops from Iraq], [quagmire in Iraq], [Operation Extreme Redundancy], [Rumsfeld], [Vietnam 2.0]