Iraq and the United States Near an Agreement on Troop Withdrawal
According to two Iraqi officials the United States and Iraq are near a deal that would bring all the troops home by the year 2010, with the exception of support personnel who would come home by 2013.
The proposed agreement calls for Americans to hand over parts of Baghdad’s Green Zone – where the U.S. Embassy is located – to the Iraqis by the end of 2008. It would also remove U.S. forces from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, according to the two senior officials, both close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and familiar with the negotiations.
The officials, who spoke separately on condition of anonymity because the talks are ongoing, said all U.S. combat troops would leave Iraq by October 2010, with the remaining support personnel gone “around 2013.”
The great lie that has been propagated is that because the president is against setting a timetable that he is in favor of staying in Iraq forever. That is simply not the case. President Bush is against a PUBLIC timetable, that is a very different notion. The truth is that as Iraqis are more able to defend themselves more and more Americans will come home, that was always the plan, and now it seems as though so much progress has been made that the governments have been crafting a strategy. Just as the president has always said he would.
The only problem here is that two loudmouth Iraqis were not able to keep their mouths shut. These negotiations should never have been made public. The article I linked to claims this is a major shift in policy but it is not. This plan is being crafted because Iraqis are able to defend themselves.
This news does let us see how far we have come in the war since the surge began, we are now able to talk about a strategy for exiting. Because this strategy is being crafted based on the successes of the United States and not just the “we have to get out of there” philosophy of the left this will be an exit in victory rather than the exit in surrender that the Democrats have tried to push on the president and the country over the last four years.
America's Watchtower 
You are arguing semantics. Who cares? As long as we get out of there as soon as possible everybody “wins”.
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I saw your post on Zimbio. I am trying to get a hold of former and present KBR and Military.
Would you mind taking a look at my most recent post and let me know if you can assist.
http://mssparky.com/2008/08/attention-former-and-current-kbr-and-us-military-in-iraq/
Thanks
Ms Sparky
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Tell me about this TOP SECRET timetable the government has been using. Apparently it is so TOP SECRET that the government denies it has one. So tell us pinkeyes, who told you about the time table?
But seriously, the truth is that staying in Iraq indefinitely has been discussed positively by the Right. It hardly seems like a “great lie” when John McCain mentions staying in Iraq for “100 years” just like Japan and Germany. And in fact, right wingers have used Japan, Gemany and South Korea as examples/excuses for substantiating the possibility of staying in Iraq.
But really I think that the administration deserves criticism not for avoiding a timetable as much as they deserve criticism for refusing to enumerate the goals which would define a victory in Iraq for the US. When the Administration can’t even tell the people what a victory scenario is, they start to suspect that the administration doesn’t want one to occur.
And anyway, if the new soverign Iraq government doesn’t want us there, why the heck would anyone complain about leaving? If they’ve just cooked their own goose that’s their problem. The US is not responsible for the actions of the Iraq government. They aren’t our puppets (or are they?).
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Well JC if you bothered to check out the link I provided you would have read about the timetable. The government will draw down troops as they see fit. They just don’t want to tell the enemy when we are leaving.
When I wrote about the great lie I was talking about fighting forever, when John McCain mentioned we would be there for 100 years he was not talking about fighting for 100 years, everyone knows that he was talking about keeping a presence there much like we have all over the world, but the left spun it to mean that McCain wanted to fight forever. That is a lie.
Now see what you made me do, you made me defend McCain, who I do not support.
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