Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Jim Hoagland writes in the Post that an internal withdrawal is underway in Iraq. US troops are being pulled off the streets:
Seems like someone or other wrote about such a strategy several months ago...
Hoagland neglects to mention where the troops will be when they're no longer on "Iraq's streets" but one can guess: (from the AP, yesterday)
The quiet change was suggested in classified briefings for friendly diplomats and visiting foreign officials: U.S. troops will be moving out of Iraq's streets and then out of Iraq's cities by the end of this year as part of a coordinated drawing down and concentration of all foreign forces. Troops from Italy and other nations will leave the country, and a reduced British force will redeploy into a smaller area of operational responsibility.
This is part of a new internal exit strategy that President Bush hinted at in Monday's Iraq speech. [ ... ] This is what Bush calls Iraqis standing up to allow Americans to stand down
Seems like someone or other wrote about such a strategy several months ago...
Hoagland neglects to mention where the troops will be when they're no longer on "Iraq's streets" but one can guess: (from the AP, yesterday)
The concrete goes on forever, vanishing into the noonday glare, 2 million cubic feet of it, a mile-long slab that's now the home of up to 120 U.S. helicopters, a "heli-park" as good as any back in the States.
At another giant base, al-Asad in Iraq's western desert, the 17,000 troops and workers come and go in a kind of bustling American town, with a Burger King, Pizza Hut and a car dealership, stop signs, traffic regulations and young bikers clogging the roads.
At a third hub down south, Tallil, they're planning a new mess hall, one that will seat 6,000 hungry airmen and soldiers for chow.
Are the Americans here to stay? Air Force mechanic Josh Remy is sure of it as he looks around Balad.
"I think we'll be here forever," the 19-year-old airman from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., told a visitor to his base.
