Think Progress

Combat troops out of Iraq by 2008.

By Amanda Terkel on Nov 30th, 2006 at 10:43 pm

Combat troops out of Iraq by 2008.

The Washington Post reports, “The bipartisan Iraq Study Group plans to recommend withdrawing nearly all U.S. combat units from Iraq by early 2008 while leaving behind troops to train, advise and support the Iraqis, setting the first goal for a major drawdown of U.S. forces, sources familiar with the proposal said yesterday.” The pull-out would be “more a conditional goal than a firm timetable.”



39 Responses to “Combat troops out of Iraq by 2008.”

  1. God is a Nihilist says:

    All this trolling and spamming. Now how about some good, like Alice Russell!!!

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=jOkll3JdBY8&mode=related&search=


  2. profmarcus says:

    i don’t believe that, whatever the recommendations of the isg, bush will heed them… there is no way in hell that he is going to abandon the 14 military bases or the massive green zone embassy complex under construction, nor is he about to forego his strategic base with which to exercise an energy monopoly on the ’stans, iraq, and, potentially, iran… the isg is nothing but smoke and mirror, designed to make it LOOK like reasonable people held reasonable discussions and came up with reasonable recommendations which were reasonably considered by a reasonable president…

    my concern is that the entire nation has been “pacified” by the outcome of the midterm elections… an even more cynical concern is that was precisely the intent… that national sense of being “pacified” is giving me almost as bad a case of heartburn as BEFORE the elections…

    And, yes, I DO take it personally


  3. Zooey says:

    Geez TP, can’t you get rid of that ass at #1?

    All of the troops need to be brought home. They’ll just get picked off quicker if there are fewer of them.


  4. katy says:

    …’08, huh… isn’t there an election or something then?
    hmmmm…


  5. Kane says:

    With the fortress they are building behind the walls of the Green Zone, and with all the oil that remains in country, and with all that we know about Bush, Cheney, and their corporate friends, does anyone truly believe that they would just walk away from this?

    Irregardless of what Iraqi citizens want or what American citizens want, the U.S. government and its military are never going to leave Iraq.


  6. Erroll says:

    Let us see if the Democrats will see this recommendation to get the troops out by 2008 as cause for celebration. By that time a thousand more Americans can wind up very dead and returning to this country in flag draped coffins, all dying for absolutely no justifiable reason. Leaving military advisers in Iraq? That is Vietnam in reverse. How many more American deaths will it take for politicians of either party to allow the words immediate withdrawal to pass from their lips?


  7. Juan C says:

    Irregardless of what Iraqi citizens want or what American citizens want, the U.S. government and its military are never going to leave Iraq.
    Comment by Kane

    Exactly. Ask Germany and Italy, for example. Why are US bases there if WWII finished 60 years ago? mmmm…I pick world dominance…anyone else?


  8. Juan C says:

  9. Juan C says:

    I just googled it. Never heard of it. I will get it.
    J, your from UK, right? You know a lot about imperialism… :)


  10. Marie says:

    The question about the bases built in Iraq, not to mention the huge embassy compound, has never been addressed as far as I know by any official in discussing Iraq. Bush intends to secure the oil wells for his own interests and those of his comrades, the bases will be needed to house our soldiers, who will never leave, being assigned to protect those oil interests.
    I think see a regional war on the horizon. I think see our troops there forever.


  11. Marie says:

    #3 profmarcus
    I see that you share similar fears about Iraq. Do you think the American people have been pacified into thinking things are going to settle down soon?


  12. Marie says:

    #9 dvd
    thanks for the link
    I will have to read it tomorrow — too late now, time for some sleep.


  13. Wayne says:

    I think see a regional war on the horizon. I think see our troops there forever.
    —– Marie

    That’s the PNAC plan.


  14. RUCerious says:

    Yeah, take out the combat troops, leave in the trainers, oh and by the way, bring in the clowns. I mean the Iraqi army.
    Our soldiers remaining very much in harms way with fewer trusty resources to defend.
    another bogus, poorly thought out “strategy?”


  15. Josh P. says:

    Anyone read the article about Homeland Security assigning “terrorist” probability scores when you fly internationally? Check it out.

    http://www.getsomejosh.com


  16. Paul in LA says:

    Leaving behind ‘troops for training’ AND FOUR MAJOR AIRBASES AND A 60-ACRE CITADEL WITH ITS OWN WATER AND POWER, AND SIX-FOOT THICK WALLS.

    Any questions?

    The real crimes cannot be discussed, when the real policy is still supposedly something they’re thinking up as they go along.

    In four Friedman’s the combat troops will be out, but the air force will be there in force, Iraq will be a shattered country, and terrorism will rage around the Middle East so that America will become the Cop of the World. With bloody hands dipped in the real royal purple.


  17. Paul in LA says:

    Dickless Van Dyke ignores the nuclear weapons plans Bushco just published in Arabic on the web.

    And the 400 tons of high-explosives they failed to guard.

    If you want to destroy America, guess what you need? George Bush.


  18. Dryveby says:

    from #24

    “…Democrat policy is designed to reward failure…”

    If this is true, than Georgie the Decider has the mother of all rewards coming his way in the lifetime achievement catagory.


  19. Paul in LA says:

    “our soldiers were “only following orders,” like the Nazis that Durbin compared them to”

    You’re a liar. Durbin was talking about the interrogations at Abu Ghraib, which were done by MERCENARIES, not soldiers, with the exception of a few MPs who were scapegoated with RUMSFELD’S CRIMES.

    Here is the link to Former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski’s testimony in the German court that makes CLEAR that our soldiers were not involved in these abuses. The orders for those abuses came from criminals like Rumsfeld, and mercenaries or contractors were the non-soldiers who carried them out. The abuses of the few MPs who were fooled by those orders were utterly minor compared to the real crimes.

    http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/GermanCase2006/Docs/abu%20KarpinskiTestimony2006.pdf


  20. Wayne says:

    http://www.ccr-ny.org/ v2/ GermanCase2006/ Docs/ abu%20KarpinskiTestimony2006.pdf
    — Paul in LA

    Thanks for the link Paul


  21. AHiddenSaint says:

  22. Jay Randal says:

    The Iraq Study Group is just a whitewash operation to give cover to Bush Regime to remain in Iraq! Notice the 2008 date, so voters are supposed to believe this crap and vote for GOP again?

    Any member of the Congress who praises the report is a traitor!


  23. Wayne says:

    Any member of the Congress who praises the report is a traitor!
    — Jay Randal

    Personally, I think if we stay till 2008, the whole region will explode into War.


  24. koalablue says:

    Bush says ‘graceful exit’ not an object amid pullout plans
    Irish Examiner – 6 hours ago

    it certainly isn’t pretty at present


  25. koalablue says:

    The Coalition of the Willing are going to have to achieve far more in the next 2 years than they have been able to achieve since Mar 2003. Since the conditions to downsize the current occupation force are “The call to pull out combat brigades by early 2008 would be more a conditional goal than a firm timetable, predicated on the assumption that circumstances on the ground would permit it, according to the sources”
    It appears just another way to restate the Stay the Course.


  26. koalablue says:

    I believe Iraq will be able to defend, govern and sustain itself. Otherwise, I’d pull our troops out.
    GWB White House, Oct. 25, 2006


  27. Share says:

    Tell the media to cover the murders and torture going on now against the people of Oxaca, Mexico who are protesting the election fraud as we should have.

    http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364×2804739
    How you can help the people of Oaxaca. Please do it now. Who, if not you?

    Please send emails today saying that:

    Thanks to the internet, people around the world know that the Mexican Federal Police and the military are shooting unarmed peaceful protestors and bystanders in Oaxaca. Ask the consulate to ask thier government to please remove the Federal Police and military immediately from Oaxaca, and to seek a peaceful resolution to the problems caused by the corrupt Governor of Oaxaca.

    Most of these consulate internet sites have a link to send them an e-mail. Just do something to help these brave people in Oaxaca organizing for a little justice.

    Please spread this far and wide.

    Thanks.
    http://www.sre.gob.mx/boston/

    ATLANTA, GA
    2600 Apple Valley Rd.
    ATLANTA, Georgia 30319
    Tel: (404) 266-2233, 1932, 2302,Fax: (404) 266-2302, 2309
    http://www.consulmexatlanta.org

    http://www.onr.com/consulmx /


  28. west virginia hillbilly says:

    The troops will leave, when the big one goes off.


  29. Uncle_Ho says:

    Out in ‘08 is too late. Get out NOW!


  30. Stupid Git says:

    Slickwilly,

    You seem to “hate” a lot of people. Got an idea to help relieve you of some of the stress you must be feeling with all that boiling vitriol fermenting in your weary soul.

    Move to a country you like.

    This country seems to be waking from the delusion that this war was ever a good idea or one that we could win. They are realizing that we’ve just started a regional war between Saudi Arabia and Iran that will cripple our relations in the region, alienate us from any influence in a large region of the world and possibly worsen our economic security by making one of our greatest allies and suppliers of oil, monetary loans and diplomacy in the region have to try and clean up the mess we created. That is why the Saudis beckoned the real President to visit them this week. To tell him that once we finally leave they are going to straighten it out. Saudi Arabia is going to battle Iran for control of Iraq.

    So yes, America has made a major mistake that we cannot fix. If you want to live in a country that enjoys being bogged down in eternal conflicts with religious fundamentalists then I suggest you move to one of those countries. I prefer living in a country that prefers intelligent choices. One not ruled by religious fundamentalists.


  31. DRxJ says:

    2,300 combat deaths in Iraq so far. Not one was in vain. Not one.
    These are the people I now hate–these people who seek to control our national security. The best of them are misinformed. The rest of them are liars.
    Comment by slickwilly
    That would be more than 2800 dead, you dolt!
    Can’t even get a recent article to cut and paste? Can’t even use one name to post? So whose misinformed and a liar?
    COWARD!


  32. Stupid Git says:

    SlickWilly,

    You seem to “hate” a lot of folks. But don’t worry, there’s a way to relieve all that boiling vitriol fermenting in your weary soul.

    If you don’t like living in a country that is waking from it’s delusions that this war was ever a good idea and that it was ever a “winnable” war, then you don’t have to.

    Just like the Saudi’s summoning our real president earlier in the week to tell him that they want us out so they can clean up after us. So that they can battle Iran and keep them from controlling Iraq.

    Yes, our country has created a mess, a regional war in the middle east that will plague us for decades, bogged the entire region in a war between religious fundamentalists that has been fermenting much longer than the hatred in your head. And now we are coming to grips with just how stupid that was.

    If you want to live in a country that enjoys feuding with fundamentalist regimes then there re plenty of countries you can do just that. Most Americans it seems prefer not living in a country run by fundamentalist zealots or at war with fundamentalist zealots. It’s just to bad the American public didn’t wake from this delusion sooner.

    Hopefully you will too.

    Best of luck with all your hatred. I hope it leads you to a bit of self discovery and maybe even an awareness that mass hatred is the problem, not the solution.


  33. Stupid Git says:

    (sorry for the double post)


  34. tarazan says:

    2008 is the year when Bush is about to give the keys to a newcomer, a new president…Bush will dump all of his trouble baskes of this war in Iraq on the desk of a new president..Bush will say later…’I stood for what is right’..and “they ‘blinked’ after me,and that is why we are in trouble” Of course ‘what is right to Bush means being the ‘decider’ regardless of the outcome which the American majority now see in 2006,some saw in 2005..and a big percentage predicted it before the war began in 2003.But the difference between 2003 and 2008 is thousands of lives lost,over 400 to 500 billions of dollars spent..and the picture in the Middle East indeed changed forever. Of course if you listen to Condi Rice,with her academia thinking she will tell you how freedom,progress and democracies are flourishing in the area..and everything is blossoming all over the place and you can smell it everywhere in the Middle East.Of course we heard before how our soldiers will see flowers marching to Baghdad and be treated like liberators and Iraq war will end in weeks,and the war spending dollar pipe will not be a big one. Bush will say I was getting the job done….for a project he created.


  35. Rosencrantz says:

    Not that surprising. Bush will pull troops out just in time to hopefully affect the 2008 elections. He’ll use it as a “mission accomplished” moment, regardless of what the situation in Iraq is really like, and say it was his dedication to the plan that helped him win the war on terror.

    There is no way Bush would allow what he believes to be his “legacy” to be taken over and fixed by the Democrats. That would be unacceptable and proof of the total and complete failure he is.


  36. impeachcheneythenbush says:

    mafiatypevinster, SlappyVanDyke, DickVanDyke&Vinsterand slickwilly are all the same guy. I think he was posting yesterday under the name of “Vinny.” I’m serious dude…get some help. Oh yeah…and it would be interesting to know just exactly where you’re getting the cut and paste stuff.


  37. Marie says:

    #46 impeach
    I agree – I wish TP would be able to flag his computer as a source of spam and eliminate his ability to post here.


  38. impeachcheneythenbush says:

    Marie – TP has banned people before so I’m uncertain why this guy is still being allowed to post…on every thread I’ve read yesterday and today!! He’s obviously mentally ill and I sincerely hope he has family and/or friends that can get him into treatment.


  39. mr JJ says:

    Dems need to go thru this bill with a fine tooth comb… Hold King George’s feet to the fire!!!!!!!!!!

    Huge war spending bill to test Democrats
    Iraq and Afghanistan request could go as high as $200 billion

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120100344.html



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