Rumsfeld mulls withdrawal from Iraq

[leftchick]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/98C7FBCC-B252-4C9B-BD66-9C991DF202F1.htm

<snip>
A day after saying more US soldiers may be needed in Iraq, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld has indicated the possible withdrawal of American troops from the country.

The US could begin to withdraw troops before the country is at peace, Rumsfeld suggested after meeting interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at the Pentagon on Friday.

"Any implication that that place has to be peaceful and perfect before we can reduce coalition and US forces would obviously be, I think, unwise because it has never been peaceful and perfect, and it isn't likely to be," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld said the US was training Iraqi security forces to take over security responsibilities.

[rfranklin]

1. Alternate headline: "Bush Administration Ready to Cut and Run..."

This is bullshit. They are building permanent bases in Iraq. There is no plan to leave. This is designed to counter Kerry's plan to disengage. If they retain control of the White House you won't hear another word about it.

[leftchick]

2. I agree.... Novack's article was BS as well....

These remarks and musings thrown out by ths * admin. are purely for their followers who have no clue about the bases and the rest of the PNAC's agenda.

[Deja Q]

3. No shock here, it was only a matter of when. Unfortunately,

The US is pulling out, their mission was accomplished some time ago (the capture of Saddam).

And, unfortunately, Rumdrinker is incompetent. Not only did we destroy that country over a pack of lies, we need to protect the oil supplies.

Or are they going to nuke the area, in such a way that they can still get unfettered access to the oil wells and refineries?

[NNN0LHI]

4. Why does he float crap like this? Maybe for the idiots to believe?

I thought he was in charge of the military? If he wants to draw down the troops in Iraq why doesn't he just start pulling troops out? Just give the order Rumsfeld. Last I heard he signed an order to increase troop numbers in Iraq. Does this fellow have a crack problem?

How come he doesn't seem concerned about all them "terrorists" he is going to leave behind? Unca Dick was saying just the other day that Iraq is full of terrorists. Now I am all confused.

Don

[Tuttle]

5. Need to transfer the troops to the north

Iran, here we come!

Get ready for some Iranian hearts-and-minds flavored cakewalk.

Tut-tut

[Julien Sorel]

6. Who's in charge here?

Allawi says no more troops are needed; General Abizaid says there are. Bush is trotting around the country telling everyone to "stay the course;" Rumsfeld is talking about a withdrawal.

Hasn't Bush been scolding America on the dangers of sending a mixed message? What could possibly be more mixed than this shit? And why haven't the media picked up on this? This isn't flip flopping; this is trampolining.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

13. There only mixed if shrub says they are..... n/t

[indepat]

7. Gee, one would think such decisions were made at a higher level

[Monte Carlo]

8. It'd be ringing the dinner bell for the terrorists

"Hey, look, we drove the Great Satan America out of Iraq by wearing them down with our shoe-string arsenals! I feel like killing more!"

[NNN0LHI]

10. Did a bunch of Afghan mujahideen begin terrorizing the USSR after...

...they drove the Great Satan USSR out of Afghanistan by wearing them down with their shoe-string arsenals? I don't recall any.

Don

[soothsayer]

9. Man, they are feeling the heat from Kerry and they are on the run!

Trying to save their sorry asses. Too late, boys the electorate is catching on to you...

[2Design]

11. alternative headline - Bush losing election looking for dem support

[slater71]

12. Beware

They could be playing good cop bad cop.

[napi21]

14. This is to hint to opposers that HE could pull troops sooner!

This is obviously a campaign tactic. Hint at pulling troops out and Shrub becomes the one talking about coming home! Give the few undecided's a reason to vote for shrub.

[underpants]

15. How do you lower the expectations of a "cakewalk"?

Oh I see that is how.

[VegasWolf]

16. BS!! Who would protect Uncle Dick's Haliburton interests in Iraq and

if Iraq goes, so does Afghanistan, and that nice new oil
pipeline from the Caspian Sea they built after taking
over might just go away!

[SOS]

17. Pre-election RNC talking point

Nothing more. Complete BS.
Novak and Rumsferatu on same page. Coincidence?

[opiate69]

18. because it has never been peaceful and perfect, and it isn't likely to be,

But.. but.. you said it would be, Rummy? What about all those good Iraqi folks we've slaughter.. er, I mean liberated? I thought it was going to be a "beacon of democracy and hope"....

[belle]

19. Flip! Flop!

[yellowcanine]

21. Big Time! Kerry needs to jump on this and force Shrub to "explain" it or

rave Rumsfield retract it.

[ogradda]

20. uhuh

does this mean he'll be selling bridges soon?

[cliss]

22. Don't fall for it.

This is just Politics, right before the Election to fool people. "Vote for Bush" is his motto.

I believe absolutely NOTHING Rumsfailed says. He is more shifty than a cobra. He's a proven liar, time and time again. We should all consider that anything he says is absolute, pure garbage.

[sattahipdeep]

23. The Iraqi people must be beaten down

And that’s what it’s all about: loot. Bush’s own auditors confessed last
month that at least $8.8 billion in Iraqi oil money controlled by the
Americans is now unaccounted for, Colonel David Hackworth reports in
DefenseWatch. This secret siphon -- doubtless sloshing into offshore
accounts around the world, as Hackworth notes -- is on top of the tens of
billions in tax dollars openly pumped to Bush’s corporate cronies and
campaign donors.

But that’s just the short-end money. Getting a stranglehold on world oil
supplies through the strategic Iraqi bottleneck -- the ultimate object of
the whole blood-soaked exercise -- will be worth trillions as reserves
begin running out in the coming decades. For Bush is not just thinking of
himself, you see; no, he’s fighting to secure the future for generations of
corrupt elitists yet unborn.

And for that, he needs terrorists, torturers, ruthless goons -- not a bunch
of Oregon boy scouts gumming up the works with acts of mercy.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/08/13/120.html

Baghdad Year Zero
Written By
Klein, Naomi

The tone of Bremer’s tenure was set with his first major act on the job:
he fired 500,000 state workers, most of them soldiers, but also doctors,
nurses, teachers, publishers, and printers. Next, he flung open the
country’s borders to absolutely unrestricted imports: no tariffs, no duties,
no inspections, no taxes. Iraq, Bremer declared two weeks after he
arrived, was “open for business.”

U.S. and Britain must “comply fully with their
obligations under international law including in
particular the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and
the Hague Regulations of 1907.”


But Bremer didn’t give up. International law prohibits occupiers from
selling state assets themselves, but it doesn’t say anything about the
puppet governments they appoint. Originally, Bremer had pledged to
hand over power to a directly elected Iraqi government, but in early
November he went to Washington for a private meeting with President
Bush and came back with a Plan B.
http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html

Allawi shot inmates in cold blood

I Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a
pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents
at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington
handed control of the country to his interim government,
according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.

They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were
lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the
maximum-security cell block in which they were held at
the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true