The Daunting Pullout From Iraq Posted by David Shorr

An otherwise well done Helene Cooper piece in the Sunday Times Week in Review echoed the shibboleth that the withdrawal of forces from Iraq will itself be an all-consuming operation:

Beyond that, the logistics of pulling out 130,000 troops from Iraq would be daunting, and it could take close to a year to get all the equipment out. Indeed, some military experts say that if the United States military was given a year to exit Iraq, it would be so consumed with the logistics that it wouldn’t be able to do anything else.

Well, last fall our own Max Bergmann -- together with Larry Korb and a couple of other Center for American Progress colleagues -- looked at just this issue in their "How to Redeploy" report, and they reached very different conclusions. Contrary to what Cooper's sources told her, during a phased year-ong pullout, those units being withdrawn in the later phases would still be able to perform ongoing missions. According to the CAP analyis, such movements of forces are one of the things our military does quite well. The only real variable in the equation is whether we are salvaging every latrine and shed we set up, some of which it only seems sensible to leave behind.

Comments

[mparker]

Republicans want to WIN in Iraq.

Republicans have no idea what that means.

Staying forever is certainly not what they were originally told, but then again, they are so malleable. See, they have a special kind of memory. You can lie to them about WAR one day and they will accept whatever that lie is. When, after a time, the lie wears too thin, you just give them a new lie. Amazingly, the new lie just writes over the last lie erasing it from memory like computer buffer that's too small.

"I doubt we'll be in Iraq 6 months"

has now morphed into -

"we're staying in Iraq forever and if we do leave EVERONE WILL DIE!!"

Republicans are fine with that.

Remember the "SURGE".

I don't recall anyone saying that, when the Surge has ended there would be more troops in Iraq then before it started. But, who remembers?

What was that surge about anyway? That was so long ago.

[John B.]

We withdrew gradually from Vietnam over a course of several years. I don't recall those who stayed being hindered by those who were leaving.

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[iedge card]

I would say Iran and Syria openly offered to help the US withdraw all of its troops from Iraq, years ago. And to help provide stability in Iraq. Years ago. Astounding stupidity of the Bush administration, and the greed of private contractors feeding off this idiotic war, kept the USA from getting out, years ago.

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More than four decades ago, did anyone here notice when Sayyid Qutb was executed? No, but we notice today. And it is now too late.