Iraq: Strategic and Diplomatic Options

[jcustis]

Maybe Afghanistan has closer parallels than even Lebanon. We are an occupying force supporting a wobbly government, we refer to insurgents as the "muj" anyway, and the bad guys seem to be adept at kicking us where it hurts.

They aren't heavy blows mind you, but a sort of death-by-a-thousand-cuts that ultimately results in withdrawal. They have to time, as did their neighbors to the east.

[SWJED]

30 November Washington Post - Study Group to Call for Pullback by Thomas Ricks and Robin Wright.

The Iraq Study Group, which wrapped up eight months of deliberations yesterday, has reached a consensus and will call for a major withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, shifting the U.S. role from combat to support and advising, according to a source familiar with the deliberations.

But the recommendation includes a series of conditions and qualifications that would govern any drawdown of forces, the source said. "It describes a process by which combat brigades could be pulled out, but there wasn't a specific timetable on it," he said. The source demanded anonymity because members of the bipartisan panel have been pledged to secrecy until the report is officially issued Dec. 6...

30 November Washington Times - Joint Chiefs Oppose Iraq Pullout by Rowan Scarborough.

All six members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, amid an ongoing Pentagon review of strategy for Iraq, oppose pulling out U.S. troops now, and are also against a specific withdrawal timetable, a defense source said yesterday...

The Joint Chiefs -- which includes Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman, along with a vice chairman and the heads of the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy -- have been meeting several times a week to review a list of Iraq options for President Bush...