"thunder" wrote in message
t...
On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:27:02 -0500, BAR wrote:


http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45640

You don't get to be a 4 star general officer without knowing a little
bit about politics and making friends on Capital Hill and the various
states with large military bases and defense contractors.

And you don't get to stay a 4 Star by undermining your CIC. ;-)

Personally, I don't understand the resistance to Obama's 16 month
withdrawal. The Status of Forces agreement has us out of the cities by
June, and out of Iraq in 36 months. Al-Maliki states an earlier
withdrawal if OK by him. The Sunnis seemed concerned by our leaving, but
there seems to be an effort to address their issues. I mean, Iraq is
looking relatively stable, though fragile, and we can use the manpower in
Afghanistan, where things look to be going downhill.


My guess is that Petraeus and Gates feel Iraq's government is still too
fragile and more time is needed.
You can debate the reasons for being there, but we totally transformed
Iraq's politics.
It would be terrible to leave Iraq in chaos or to see lives lost in vain.

Of course Harry thinks they just want to justify their jobs.

Petraeus is also in charge of operations in Afghanistan. It seems
reasonable to conclude that he
would be anxious to wrap up operations in Iraq, focus on Afghanistan and
maybe even catching Bin Laden. He'd be a national hero.
So, there must be good reason for them to advise against too early of a pull
out in Iraq.

Eisboch