Military Experts Question Iraq Pullback Proposal [View All]

Reuters 12/6

BAGHDAD - Pulling back American troops into their bases in Iraq will reduce U.S. casualties,
but it could also spark a firestorm of unrestrained sectarian violence that will sorely test the
loyalties of the Iraqi army.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which reports on Wednesday, has explored ways of moving
forward U.S. policy in Iraq, where U.S. Defense Secretary designate Robert Gates said on
Tuesday America was not winning the war and needed a new approach.

Military analysts have focused on leaked recommendations that U.S. troops shift from combat
to concentrate on supporting and training Iraqi forces, who should do none of the fighting.

Some analysts interviewed ahead of the report's publication cautioned that such a proposal
was fraught with peril when viewed against the backdrop of sectarian and insurgent violence
that has defied previous U.S. and Iraqi efforts to rein it in.

"The short term will see a drop in (U.S.) casualties. But the military consequence of pulling
back will be to cede the initiative to the enemy and to reduce the patrol presence that keeps
enemy activity down," said Stephen Biddle of the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies
Institute.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL531849.htm

That's the problem with losing a war, none of the remaining options lead to anything more
than defeat viewed from a different perspective. It seems obvious to me that the Iraq Study
Group is little more than a stall designed to give the impression that we still have options
in Iraq. We don't. This report will come out, it will be chattered about for a week or so, and
then it will become obvious that nothing much will change. Event over.

As Al Gore put it, the Iraq war is "the worst strategic mistake in the history of the United
States." It is going to take more than a report from a bunch of retired lifer Feds to undo the
consequences of this bitter disaster.