US troop levels in Iraq unsustainable after mid-2008: Powell

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former US secretary of state and top US general Colin Powell said Wednesday that the current level of US troops in Iraq cannot be maintained beyond mid-2008.

Powell, a retired four-star general who was President George W. Bush's top diplomat from 2001 to 2005, and was the military's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff during 1989-1993, also called on Washington to find a way to talk with the powerful Palestinian group Hamas, despite its alleged terror links.

"This is a tremendous burden on our troops and on our families," Powell said of the ongoing troop presence in Iraq, in an interview with National Public Radio.

Speaking after Senate Republicans blocked a vote calling for troop withdrawals to start within 120 days and for a complete pullout by the end of April, Powell said the US Army and Marine Corps were stretched to their limit in Iraq since they had not been increased in size despite the greater responsibilities demanded of them.

"It is not sustainable for our troops just to stay over there for an indefinite period at 180,000 person-strength unless there is improvement in the conditions that generate what I consider to be a civil war. So we have to have progress on the Iraqi political side," Powell said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070718/pl_afp/usiraqmideastpolitics

[Xipe Totec]

1. Powell needs to STFU

He has no credibility left so, even when he's right, it doesn't help us; it just draws attention away from the subject and on to him personally.

[Jacobin]

3. He helped get this clusterfuck going and you are right

He needs to STFU.

Plus, he forgot the Boy Scouts.......

[Xipe Totec]

6. Damn straight. nt

[wishlist]

2. Welfare of troops is not one of Bush's priorities

Bush just wants to keep the status quo until he is out of office, no matter how many needless casualties occur and how detrimental the long tours are on the soldiers.

[Fearless]

4. Very True

Dump the rest on the next president. If it's a democrat, which it will be, then they've got the future of the democratic majority to worry about if they cannot undo the problems he's done.

[goclark]

5. Shut Up Colon!

You had your eyes Wide Shut for all these years and now you are trying to make us believe that your eyes are Wide Open! :mad:

[Lars39]

7. Inoculation for a draft.

Powell is still their tool.

[Fearless]

8. We may be seeing Vietnam in Iraq as some describe...

but install a draft and we'll see it at home too. More so actually as far fewer people like this war than the Vietnam war at the time of the draft. Could be interesting. We need to wake people up one way or another.

[Lars39]

9. You don't stop a war by giving the machine the warm bodies needed to further the war.

The military is so broken right now, I'm afraid a draft would be necessary just to keep it going, and that's not including the troops needed for the Pinky and the Brain's plans. :(

[Fearless]

I agree completely

and I'm completely against the draft, I do have a bit of an age bias. In more ways than one this has become Vietnam. Especially about ground ops. US troops patrolling city streets and manning checkpoints waiting to get fired on. Counter-terrorist excursions, ransacking people's homes looking for the "enemy", fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here, shock and awe, mindless and senseless killing, torture, it's all the same. And the results are the same, minus the draft. Personally I don't think the draft could pass. Democratic majority as it is. And Republicans wishing to be reelected as usual.

I don't know where a link to it is, but I was watching Senator Webb on tv yesterday and he provided a practical approach to getting out of Iraq involving the UN and surrounding nations. It may have some merit. Time will tell.

And for the record, the guy who voiced Brain on Pinky and the Brain now does radio ads for a rum drink. I forget which. Maybe Bush can go do the same, I daresay he's had some experience in the rum department. :beer:

[Fearless]

10. Repeat comment deleted.