So, Pres. elect Obama's 'new' generals have completed an Iraq withdrawal plan

16 minutes ago

US general drafts troop withdrawal plan for Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. general in Iraq has made initial recommendations about how to begin withdrawing the nearly 150,000 U.S. forces there.

General Raymond Odierno has told senior Pentagon leaders how he thinks the U.S. should comply with terms of the security agreement recently signed by the U.S. and Iraq. The agreement calls for American fighting forces to be out of Iraq by 2012.

A senior military official says General David Petraeus, who has overall responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, helped lay out the plan late last week. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Odierno's plan has not been made public.

Odierno foresees a gradual withdrawal over that three-year period. But President-elect Barack Obama has said he wants to be out inside 16 months.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hcWJu9bbzrJZ7uNHjvMn0BuTGqHQD9558E1O0


related:

Troops to Stay Longer in Iraq as Support, U.S. Says

Gen. Ray Odierno, said American troops would remain at numerous security outposts in order to help support and train Iraqi forces. “We believe that’s part of our transition teams,” he told reporters in Balad while accompanying Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who arrived on an unannounced trip Saturday.

General Odierno said Saturday, as Pentagon officials have said previously, that the agreement might be renegotiated with the Iraqi government. “Three years is a very long time,” he told reporters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/world/middleeast/14gates.html?pagewanted=print

My hope is gone.

Just today I find out

A guy who lives and breathes No Child Left Behind is being put in charge of Education
A woman who protects companies from the public is being put in charge of the SEC
A guy who preaches hate against everyone who is not white, straight and christian is promoted to the national stage.
Guantanamo is going to remain open for at least another two years.

My hope is gone. We are never leaving Iraq

. . . we need to see how Pres. Obama dispatches these military subordinates.

Odierno and Petraeus are Bush people, laying out a Bush plan. For this one issue alone I am very much looking forward to seeing what Obama will do. It will be hard to forgive him if he doesn't keep his promise to have all combat troops out of Iraq 16 months after January 20.

. . . because it would look like we never changed administrations as they drag their feet at the snail pace that Petraeus has perfected under Bush.

Then I would issue an order (and certainly not invite debate) for a 16 month drawdown, with benchmarks all along the way to thwart the foot dragging. If Petraeus can't follow orders he isn't qualified to serve in the military.

Just like you say, I'm sure the neocon plan is to drag this out for three more years, after which time combat troops will still be there and they'll set yet another target date.

. . . he'll use the same authority Bush used to deploy the troops and keep them there which amounted to little more than Congress' unwillingness to take any responsibility at all except to give Bush more money.

I agree that it would be a disaster to give Congress a chance to do anything, but I'm not going to like the fact that an autocratic action like simply and effectively ordering them home will codify the manner in which Bush has conducted this military aggression against Iraqis and the overthrow and replacement of the Iraq regime behind the sacrifices of our nation's defenders.

I'm sure non-combat troops (oxymoron?) will be there for years to come, kind of like South Korea or Germany except with IEDs blowing up everywhere. I don't like that part of it and I'm not sure exactly what role the remaining soldiers will actually play but this is an improvement Obama promised us and I expect him to deliver.

Also keep in mind that the US military decrease in Iraq will probably be matched by an increase in Afghanistan.

For years I have wanted to see a complete US military withdrawal from countries like South Korea, Germany, Japan, and more recently Iraq. I just might get my wish, but not in the way I have been hoping. We are encumbering massive debt on account of the collosal collapse of the Bush trickle-down economy and this will surely have its consequences. It is a source of frustration to see so many knuckleheads could not see this coming and still don't, despite the clear lesson to be learned from the breakup of the USSR.

. . . and that's the reason that I can't find any way right now to just relax and go with the flow that he's allowed to continue at the Pentagon.

There really hasn't been a good reason to fall in line behind the visible intentions of the folks he's allowing to stay and craft his exit. It's the same parameters of the original fight to end the occupation, albeit buttressed by some hope that the Democratic president will be decisive in his efforts to provide a 'clear change' from Bush's reflexive militarism.

to deal with. I'd suprised if it happens in under two years.

. . . about 'protecting interests', preserving 'gains', and 'fighting terrorism' we could have a definitive goal in sight for the end of this folly. As it stands, the new president is already boxing himself in by accepting the premises behind the SOFA that we are supposed to prop up the Maliki regime until they can stand on their own. That may never happen.

. . . that we wouldn't abide a murmur of support for continuing. Now we have 'hope' to sustain us.

It's almost as if the protests against the occupation were mostly about Bush, rather than actually being concerned with an immediate end to the illegal and immoral exercise of our oppressive military forces.

I'll continue to attend any rally against the occupation that anyone still has the temerity to organize. I've been thinking about taking to my street corner again with my old signs and the huge peace sign. I can't operate on hope alone.