Pentagon Making Preparations To Keep Tens Of Thousands Of Troops In Iraq For ‘Decades’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/21/iraq-decades/

Pentagon Making Preparations To Keep Tens Of Thousands Of Troops In Iraq For ‘Decades’

In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee this month, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace uttered a “carefully worded” statement revealing that the Pentagon had no plans to fully withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq if legislation passes Congress mandating troop redeployment:

PACE: Sir, we have published no orders directing the planning for the overall withdrawal of forces. We do have ongoing replacements of forces, and we do change the size of the force over time so that that system is available to either plus-up or draw down, but we have published no orders saying come up with a complete plan for total drawdown.

NPR investigated Pace’s statements and found one scenario being considered within the Pentagon would maintain a strong U.S. military presence in Iraq for several decades into the future.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10292643

This so-called “lily pad” strategy entails keeping a “series of military installations around Iraq,” with tens of thousands of U.S. troops remaining in the country for as long as a few decades:

What it essentially envisions is a series of military installations around Iraq, maybe five or six of them, a total of maybe 30-40 thousand U.S. troops in Iraq for a long period of time, lasting, maybe a few decades. And the idea is that these bases will be somewhat hermetically sealed, that U.S. military forces won’t be leaving them, they won’t be conducting presence patrols and the patrols they conduct now. Ground convoys won’t be driving into them.

Airplanes will be essentially landing in to deliver supplies and these sort of lily pads will be in various strategic areas in Iraq … And that will enable the U.S. military to maintain a presence in the country, perhaps…for a few decades.

The Pentagon’s goal with the lily pads is to preserve U.S. interests in Iraq for years to come “in the event that Congress or the administration pushes this forward.” As NPR details, those interests are at least three-fold: 1) Training Iraq forces, 2) Preserving economic interests, as “Iraq obviously on the second largest reserve of oil in the world,” and 3) Providing a U.S. military “presence” to deter Iran and Turkey from “getting involved” after withdrawal.

While 60 percent of Americans are calling for a withdrawal of the U.S. from Iraq, the Pentagon is instead making preparations for an unending occupying presence.

[BOSSHOG]

1. The "unending" bush legacy

what a guy. He'll track things from Paraguay.

[Az]

2. You didn't think that base they are building was gonna be empty

did ya?

[Disturbed]

6. The majority of Dems in Congress support this.

For anyone that read the first Bill that was presented to Busholini it is obvious that most Dems support indefinite US presence in Iraq.

[moodforaday]

3. sigh... K&R, nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. They're dreaming. The Iraqis will finish giving us the boot long before the bases are completed.

Or, America will be completely bankrupt trying to salvage a lost war.

[leftchick]

5. and the majority of democrats have no problem with this

regardless of what the people want.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070521/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq

[TheMadMonk]

9. Of course not. We (the people) see corruption, etc and demand that it be stopped.

Your average pollie (of whatever stripe) sees it, and thinks "How can I(/my side) benefit?"

[IDemo]

7. Here's a graph depicting estimated troop numbers by year

[dogday]

8. With an Embassy bigger than the Vatican

and 14 known bases... It doesn't look as though we are leaving.

[many a good man]

10. Why does everyone act so surprised?

TBTB have decreed it long ago. The lords of the Empire have spoken. There's no way around this because our Republic has been gradually replaced by an Empire. It does not matter whether Democrats or Republicans rule, though Democrats will be much more genteel. The only way out is a genuine democratic revolution - or an utter economic collapse.

[screembloodymurder]

11. It doesn't matter what we want.

My friend was talking to a Navy wife. Her husbands been told the Navy plans to keep 20% of their manpower in Iraq for 20 years. In a shocking coincidence, the oil runs out in 20 years give or take a month.

[Jacobin]

12. "a few decades"

Those Friedman Units have really expanded.

[MissWaverly]

13. The Iraqis will drive us out of Iraq

"And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it."
Luke: 19:41

"For the days shall come upon thee, that thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee around and shall lay thee even
with the ground...and they shall not leave within thee one stone upon another." Luke 19:43

We had our chance to win the hearts and minds and that chance is long gone.

[LibertyorDeath]

14. They forgot a word an over site no doubt

OIL
"The Pentagon’s goal with the lily pads is to preserve U.S. interests in Iraq for years to come"