BLACKFIVE: Exit Strategy- Time to talk timetables

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Exit Strategy- Time to talk timetables

Posted By Uncle Jimbo

Gen. Petraeus will be back to testify in front of Congress in April and he has a lot of interesting information for those whose disbelief is not willfully suspended. He was right and the Democrats were all dreadfully wrong. Wrong in ways that are the difference between defeat and victory. That is why it is vital that President Bush take decisive actions this year and claim victory in Iraq before he leaves office.It is conceivable to leave the end game of the iraq war in President McCain's hands, but terrifying to consider it under President Obama's leadership with President Clinton II only marginally less worrisome. Our global security is dependent on the rest of the world believing we can handle our business, that means we must have a win in Iraq. Our viability as a deterrent against violence depends on it.

The situation in Iraq is better, but not decisively so yet and Gen. Petraeus is likely to caution that talk of troop withdrawals is premature. He will be right as a military officer, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be discussed. As ground commander he will advise the President what he believes is the ideal number of troops he needs to do the job. The President on the other hand is both Commander in Chief and President. of the US. Those roles are both needed to secure victory in Iraq. He needs to act as President in telling the Iraqi leadership that we believe we have done enough to allow them to take the lead. He needs to act as Commander in Chief to begin transitioning our forces away from primary combat responsibility to combat support and training roles. What do you mean I sound like Russ Feingold? Allow me to clarify.

White House Press Secretary Uncle Jimbo had the following to say today.

President Bush is headed to the Middle East for meetings with leaders of several nations. He will meet with Prime Minister Maliki and President Talibani in Iraq and let them know that he believes the Iraqi forces have made sufficient progress that they can begin to take a lead role in their own security. He will announce an increase to the pace at which we are turning over areas to Iraqi control. He will assure them that US forces will not pull back if security conditions don't allow it. He will inform Gen. Petraeus and the US military leadership that as Commander in Chief it is his intent to transfer the lead in combat and security operations to the Iraqi forces and that he wishes them to reduce our forces in Iraq by replacing US units with Iraqi ones. Iraqi units will be augmented by US advisers attached to them as they take over for our troops. This reduction in forces will remain dependent on the security situation and will be reversed if it deteriorates in any significant way.

He will then be traveling to Iran where he will meet with Iranian leaders on the tarmac aboard Air Force One to advise them that if their use of Qods Force to train insurgents, and provide EFPs doesn't stop we will conduct retaliatory raids on military facilities controlled by the Revolutionary Guards. He will inform them that a free, democratic Iraq will be allowed to flourish and their interference will not be tolerated. He will then announce to the world that Iran has made a gift of $500M to the Iraqi government to help with reconstruction.

He will then fly to Syria where he will inform President Assad that he ought to spend more time on domestic politics and less futzing about in the area, I mean Damascus is such a pretty city, it'd be a shame if somehow it got bombed. He will also let him know that he is very fond of opposition politicians in Lebanon and that any future explosions will be taken personally.

He will then fly to the Kingdom of Saud where he will do some more of that man love with their royalty prior to announcing the Saudis have doubled Iran's gift and have donated $1B to create an electrical grid in Iraq.

The last stop will be in France where Presidents Bush & Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel will announce the formation of a Franco-German-American Reconstruction Corps that will deploy to Iraq and work on projects to immediately improve Iraq's quality of life.

Now let's examine what this could mean. I don't think an open-ended commitment to combat in Iraq is in anyone's interest. The idea that our potential withdrawal would motivate the Iraqis has always been valid, they just had to be prepared and the security situation had to have improved for it to work.

When he announces this the Democrats will howl that they had been calling for this and W can remind them if had followed their advice at that point we could be discussing our loss in Iraq and it's strategic implications. Instead he ignored their defeat-mongering and we are now contemplating an important victory.