General Petareus chimes in
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/petraeus-al-maliki-wants-time-horizons-not-timetables-2008-07-18.html
...Gen. David Petraeus cast al-Maliki’s growing assertiveness on the presence of US. troops as a positive sign of the government’s sovereignty while lauding Iraq’s improved military ability. But Petraeus indicated that doesn’t necessarily mean American troops...leave by the end of next year...
However, Petraeus also said the improved capability of the Iraqi forces means there is less risk of chaos if the U.S. departs...Iraqi government can now respond to erupting violence in ways that were not possible a year ago...competence of the Iraqi military may save the U.S. from having to step up its force presence after withdrawals have begun.
“And we're at a situation where the Iraqis, in fact, are able to move their forces around. We saw them deploy a division's worth of forces to Basra within the space of less than a week,” according to Petraeus.
“So I think that the Iraqis now have options that were not available in the past when there were troubles, and that would obviously be the — be the preferable one. “He is understandably and rightly endeavoring to show that this is an Iraq with a sovereign Iraqi government making sovereign decisions and discussing time horizons, which is the term that has been used, aspirations of those,” he said of al-Maliki.
Gen. Petraeus has made tremendous progress in Iraq, such a shame a General over seeing a war can give comments that are used by both parties for political gain.
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"Petraeus also said the improved capability of the Iraqi forces means there is less risk of chaos if the U.S. departs...Iraqi government can now respond to erupting violence in ways that were not possible a year ago...competence of the Iraqi military may save the U.S. from having to step up its force presence after withdrawals have begun."
So if we had Obama's plan..Iraq's forces would be nowhere near where they are now as a result of the McCain/Petreaus surge. I think its very difficult for Obama to make the arguement that his post surge withdrawal plan is sound when his pre surge and during the surge withdrawal plan of getting out by March 31, 2008..would have been a complete disaster for America and our Iraqi allies and a huge victory for Al Qaeda and Tehran
Obama's belief that we should've been home by March 31, 2008 would mean with certainty that Iraq would not be what it is today. That isn't arguable. Obama's current Iraq plan however is not one for defeat or an un-resonable one becaues of the current gains. He may not emphasize his talking about listening to commanders but that doesn't mean he'd ignore them.
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