Iraq Study group to propose "transition to support"
According to Reuters, the Iraq Study Group has come up with a recommendation.
The Iraq Study Group, while it is in an unenviable position, wasn't elected by anyone. It's been thrust into the limelight by circumstances, and it's not going to come up with a solution. There is no branch of government called the Iraq Study Group. The branch that needs to be reinvigorated and provide a check on the administration meets in the building with the giant dome on top.
Does anyone really think Iran and Syria are going to be eager to help us? It would be nice if they did, but I think we just spent the last five years or so declaring that we need to invade them and stuff. One of them was a member of some "Axis of Bad People." Or maybe it a was a boy band, I can't remember.
So we are left with whatever comes of the (so far) once-postponed Jordan summit. Is it January 4 yet?
The Iraq Study Group has decided to recommend the U.S. military transition from a combat to a support role in Iraq roughly over the next year, a source familiar with the panel's deliberations said on Wednesday.Um, two things. Bush isn't likely to go for it, and even if he did, what happens when U.S. bases are attacked? Not that things are neccessarily comparable right now, but does anyone recall Khe Sanh? You go sticking U.S. troops in bases and outposts like that, sooner or later there's going to be a sandstorm.
"The main thing is (the group is) calling for a transition from a combat role to a support role," said the source, who spoke on condition that he not be named. "It's basically a redeployment."
The source said the idea was to shift U.S. combat forces both to bases inside Iraq as well as elsewhere in the region as the military gradually moved away from combat operations, adding that this should happen over the next year or so.
The New York Times earlier reported that there was no timetable for the proposed U.S. pullback, but the source said: "there is a kind of indication in the report as to when that ought to be completed ... sometime within the next year."
The independent, bipartisan group also decided to call for a regional conference that could lead to direct U.S. talks with Iran and Syria, both accused by the United States of fomenting violence in Iraq, the source added.
The Iraq Study Group, while it is in an unenviable position, wasn't elected by anyone. It's been thrust into the limelight by circumstances, and it's not going to come up with a solution. There is no branch of government called the Iraq Study Group. The branch that needs to be reinvigorated and provide a check on the administration meets in the building with the giant dome on top.
Does anyone really think Iran and Syria are going to be eager to help us? It would be nice if they did, but I think we just spent the last five years or so declaring that we need to invade them and stuff. One of them was a member of some "Axis of Bad People." Or maybe it a was a boy band, I can't remember.
So we are left with whatever comes of the (so far) once-postponed Jordan summit. Is it January 4 yet?
