Gen. Petraeus warns of a hasty US pullout from Iraq

And this is dimson's ammunition. Just great. :argh:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0713/p25s01-woiq.html

Gen. Petraeus warns of a hasty US pullout from Iraq
In a Monitor interview, top US general sees pockets of progress.
By Leslie Sabbagh | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

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Arab Jabour, Iraq - As the merits of staying in Iraq are debated in the US, the top American commander in Iraq says that a quick withdrawal of US troops will cause "greatly increased sectarian violence."

The release of a White House report Thursday, showing the Iraqi government had only made "satisfactory" progress on eight of 18 benchmarks, may accelerate a congressional push for a midterm accounting, with some critics saying July is the new September. Gen. David Petraeus is due to report to Congress on progress in Iraq in September.

But in an interview, General Petraeus insists, "September is September from my perspective."

"What the ambassador and I will do in September is to provide a forthright, comprehensive assessment of the situation at the time and provide discussion of the potential consequences of various courses of action that might be considered," he says.

In fact, while talking to officers here Wednesday at Patrol Base Murray, occupied by the US 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, the general stressed the importance of the increased numbers of troops in the effort to stabilize the areas in and around Baghdad. Establishing relationships with locals is vital in identifying Al Qaeda operatives and may only be sustainable, at least in the short term, with increased US presence, he said.

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"I have a gut feeling that September is September."

Despite the best efforts by the CONs to discredit the House's plan for a pullout, Jack Reed and Co. are standing behind their guns and showing some backbone. Besides, the pullout plan is anything but 'precipitous'. We simply have to send the Iraqi government a message to drop their junk and show some spunk.

Instead of a military trapped on the ground in Iraq and spending 10 billion a month, we should redeploy into a $5 billion/mo. quick deployment force that could be anywhere on earth in 36 hours.

he is also in the back pocket of Cheney/Bush. What the hell, we are committing genocide in Iraq, one million Iraqis have been killed, we need to get out and get our soldiers home for their own mental health, this filthy administration is abusing our troops.

... talk talk talk and more talk. The administration and its lackeys in the military leadership can talk talk talk talk and talk, but they cannot produce even MODEST results on the ground.

Enough is enough. We could stay there 10 years and Iraq will still do what Iraq does. Enough is enough.

isn't policy supposed to be set in Wash dc????

until he fails to do this admin's bidding, then he'll find someone else. Which reminds me, I wonder where the new war czar is. He must be werkin' hard, but haven't heard a word about him.

the war, * is making Congress irrelevant, when will these senators start hitting this SOB hard, do not back down and do not give in to this dictator.

But if America keeps spending money like that, without the rich people in the country paying their fair share of their taxes, we will soon go belly up like the USSR did. Is it the goal of Bush and Gen. Petraeus to bankrupt the country? How can America remain secure and sustain the level of debt we are incurring in Bush's "War On Terra?"

Is the security of Iraq more important to Gen. Petraeus than the security of America? If so, he is no smarter than his ignorant boss. The neoCons are selling America to RED China to finance their endless war.

Weren't we gonna have a "War Czar" to make decisions for Bush?

Including everything that the WH is trying to sell.