{"id":910,"date":"2005-06-21T23:52:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-22T04:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=910"},"modified":"2005-06-21T23:55:01","modified_gmt":"2005-06-22T04:55:01","slug":"general-no-drawdown-in-iraq-likely-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=910","title":{"rendered":"General: No Drawdown in Iraq Likely Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do we want the troops to be brought back from Iraq? Of course, everybody does. Some just know that there’s work yet to be done, and reductions aren’t wise now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The top U.S. combat commander in Iraq says American troop levels likely will remain steady through early next year and that drawdowns likely will not depend on political developments in the nascent Iraqi government.<\/p>\n

Army Lt. Gen. John Vines told Pentagon reporters Tuesday that the violent insurgency likely will continue through this autumn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s constitutional referendum.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see the insurgency contracting or expanding right now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Vines said.<\/p>\n

Vines also said he would prefer not to have a timeline for troop withdrawals imposed by Congress and that there is a possibility the insurgency will evaporate following successful national elections this December.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Feel free to peruse my thoughts on the cowardice<\/a> of timelines and “exit strategies.”<\/p>\n

About 135,000 U.S. troops now serve in Iraq, with tens of thousands more in supporting roles outside that nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s borders.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, during the relative calm that followed the January election, senior commanders told Congress they expected to be prepared to recommend troop cuts by this summer. However, following a post-election lull, deadly attacks aimed at both Iraqis and U.S. troops have again become commonplace.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not at that point yet,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Vines told reporters when asked whether he would recommend U.S. troop cuts soon.<\/p>\n

Troop levels are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153conditions-based,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Vines said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Currently we know that insurgents will do everything they can do disrupt ratification of a constitution. To them, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a terrifying event.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Iraq\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interim government is drafting a new constitution, scheduled to be ratified by national election in October. If that happens, national elections for a permanent government would take place in December.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At this point, I would not be prepared to recommend a drawdown prior to the election \u00e2\u20ac\u201d certainly not in any significant numbers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Vines said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I deem this a rational assessment based on pending political events and the shape of things on the ground. Vines does not rule out flexibility in the matter, though.<\/p>\n

He held out the possibility that he might not ask for replacements for some units currently deployed.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We continue to assess that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not at the point where we make that decision yet.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is this another Viet Nam? Is history repeating itself? Are we tied to years of expanding deployment numbers and constant calls from the military for yet more troops?<\/p>\n

Conversely, Vines said he also does not expect to recommend a troop increase for the autumn referendum and winter elections. This past January, U.S. troop levels in Iraq were temporarily beefed up to nearly 160,000 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the peak for this mission \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to help protect polls from insurgent attacks.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would not be in a position to recommend any spike\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in U.S. troop levels this autumn, Vines said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see that. Is it possible? Yes, if we think he conditions have changed. But right now I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t foresee a spike to support that referendum.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, how long until we can put the Viet Nam analogies to bed? My guess is a long, long while, as the left in America has absolutely tied itself to its skewed view of the American military, its Hollywood-taught-me-about-Nam mentality. So much of their worldview is built on those slanted foundations. Unfortunately, the same is true for the bulk of the “American” media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do we want the troops to be brought back from Iraq? Of course, everybody does. Some just know that there’s work yet to be done, and reductions aren’t wise now. The top U.S. combat commander in Iraq says American troop levels likely will remain steady through early next year and that drawdowns likely will not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-military","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}