Change in Iraq?

CannabisInCanada · May 28, 2009

Army chief says US ready to be in Iraq 10 years - Yahoo! News

Army chief says US ready to be in Iraq 10 years

By TOM CURLEY, Associated Press Writer Tom Curley, Associated Press Writer Tue May 26, 6:23 pm ET
WASHINGTON â€“ The Pentagon is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between the United States and Iraq that would bring all American troops home by 2012, the top U.S. Army officer said Tuesday.
Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said the world remains dangerous and unpredictable, and the Pentagon must plan for extended U.S. combat and stability operations in two wars. "Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction," Casey said. "They fundamentally will change how the Army works."
He spoke at an invitation-only briefing to a dozen journalists and policy analysts from Washington-based think-tanks. He said his planning envisions combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade as part of a sustained U.S. commitment to fighting extremism and terrorism in the Middle East.

Casey's calculations about force levels are related to his attempt to ease the brutal deployment calendar that he said would "bring the Army to its knees."
Casey would not specify how many combat units would be split between Iraq and Afghanistan. He said U.S. ground commander Gen. Ray Odierno is leading a study to determine how far U.S. forces could be cut back in Iraq and still be effective.
President Barack Obama plans to bring U.S. combat forces home from Iraq in 2010, and the United States and Iraq have agreed that all American forces would leave by 2012. Although several senior U.S. officials have suggested Iraq could request an extension, the legal agreement the two countries signed last year would have to be amended for any significant U.S. presence to remain.

As recently as February, Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the U.S. commitment to the agreement worked out with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"Under the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government, I intend to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011," Gates said during an address at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. "We will complete this transition to Iraqi responsibility, and we will bring our troops home with the honor that they have earned."

The United States currently has about 139,000 troops in Iraq and 52,000 in Afghanistan.
Obama campaigned on ending the Iraq war as quickly as possible and refocusing U.S. resources on what he called the more important fight in Afghanistan.

That will not mean a major influx of U.S. fighting forces on the model of the Iraq "surge," however. Obama has agreed to send about 21,000 combat forces and trainers to Afghanistan this year. Combined with additional forces approved before former President George W. Bush left office, the United States is expected to have about 68,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of this year. That's about double the total at the end of 2008, but Obama's top military and civilian advisers have indicated the number is unlikely to grow much beyond that.

Casey said several times that he wasn't the person making policy, but the military was preparing to have a fighting force deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan for years to come. Casey said his planning envisions 10 combat brigades plus command and support forces committed to the two wars.

When asked whether the Army had any measurement for knowing how big it should be, Casey responded, "How about the reality scenario?"

This scenario, he said, must take into account that "we're going to have 10 Army and Marine units deployed for a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Casey stressed that the United States must be ready to take on sustained fights in the Middle East while meeting other commitments.

Casey reiterated statements made by civilian and military leaders that the situation in Afghanistan would get worse before it gets better.

"There's going to be a big fight in the South," he said.

Casey added that training of local police and military in Afghanistan was at least a couple years behind the pace in Iraq, and it would be months before the U.S. deployed enough trainers. There's a steeper curve before training could be effective in Afghanistan, requiring three to five years before Afghanis could reach the "tipping point" of control.
He also said the U.S. had to be careful about what assets get deployed to Afghanistan.

"Anything you put in there would be in there for a decade," he said.

As Army chief of staff, Casey is primarily responsible for assembling the manpower and determining assignments. He insisted the Army's 1.1-million size was sufficient even to handle the extended Mideast conflicts.

"We ought to build a pretty effective Army with 1.1 million strength," Casey said. He also noted that the Army's budget had grown to $220 billion from $68 billion before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He said the Army is two-thirds of the way through a complete overhaul from the Cold War-era force built around tanks and artillery to today's terrorist-driven realities. The Army has become more versatile and quicker by switching from division-led units to brigade-level command.

Casey said the Army has moved from 15-month battlefield deployments to 12 months. His goal is to move rotations by 2011 to one year in the battlefield and two years out for regular Army troops, and one year in the battlefield and three years out for reserves. He called the current one-year-in-one-year-out cycle "unsustainable."
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pineapple skunk · May 28, 2009

bleh, take em all out

it was a noble cause at first, but it's time to pack up and leave

i imagine we will still have a presence their for years into the future, but what can ya do

Gloom · May 28, 2009

pineapple skunk said:

bleh, take em all out

it was a noble cause at first, but it's time to pack up and leave

i imagine we will still have a presence their for years into the future, but what can ya do
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Killing another is never a noble cause.

pineapple skunk · May 28, 2009

taking out saddam hussein, who ironically, was "killing another" was noble

not what we should be focusing on in the world, but noble nevertheless

aaronman · May 28, 2009

pineapple skunk said:

taking out saddam hussein, who ironically, was "killing another" was noble
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Want some more irony?

We've already killed more innocent Iraqis than Saddam ever did.

Raoul Duke II · May 28, 2009

Even more Irony?

We put Saddam in power and okayed his attacks on Kuwait. US ambassador's response to Hussein when he asked was: "...But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."

Transcript of Saddam-US ambassador meeting

aaronman · May 28, 2009

Holy fuck its gonna blow!

Dickie4:20 · May 28, 2009

Christ, too much irony for my braaainn.

But this whole troops until 2019 is fuckin bullshit.

Obama is really kicking this can down the road, its starting to get ridiculous. Our involment is growing, just like Afghanistan.

CannabisInCanada · May 28, 2009

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg]YouTube - Candidates@Google: Ron Paul[/ame]

Why don't I just leave this here?

pineapple skunk · May 28, 2009

aaronman said:

Want some more irony?

We've already killed more innocent Iraqis than Saddam ever did.
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like i said, it was noble at first

but its dragged on far too long

Raoul Duke II · May 28, 2009

pineapple skunk said:

like i said, it was noble at first

but its dragged on far too long
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I don't believe is noble at all since we actally put him in and were indifferent to his genocides

CannabisInCanada · May 28, 2009

How is invading/destroying/rebuilding a country you had no business in in the first place noble?

pineapple skunk · May 28, 2009

^ because believe it or not, iraqis were happy when saddam was taken out of power

remember the statue being torn down?

wackdeafboy · May 28, 2009

Bullshit! They hate us more saddam. Plus they had more freedom then we do and less crimes then we do. Muslim wanted no borders, open to all nations, be kind to woman or else.

kush452 · May 28, 2009

wackdeafboy said:

Bullshit! They hate us more saddam. Plus they had more freedom then we do and less crimes then we do. Muslim wanted no borders, open to all nations, be kind to woman or else.
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They do not hate us more than Saddam.

Most of the cites in Iraq are positively affects by us being there. Along with welcoming change and the US training police to take control of there own country. The police are going in numbers and becoming more effectivem but are still a long way off from being able to control the insurgents. They US military is a one of the best militarts in the world for war skills.

You can just pull out because once you do the insurgents mayl take control of a nation that is weak and it will go to ever worse conditions. People will be straving ect. Then we will look like the bad guys and the humatiartians will be all over us. [I wish we were like israel and we didnt care about what people had to say.]

CannabisInCanada · May 28, 2009

If you're training the police to help them become sovereign and independent then why are you also building an embassy bigger than the Vatican there?

Also, I'd like to know how you know that the Iraqis are happier - or if you're just talking out of your ass.

Thanks.

Vitamin 420 · May 28, 2009

pineapple skunk said:

it was a noble cause at first
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Before you say that concretely, I think we need to know why we went into Iraq in the first place. I don't think we had the best interests of the Iraqi people in mind, and it certainly wasn't a "noble" cause at all. They have something we want... something we can make a lot of money off... I wonder what it could be??

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