The Coming Drawdown in Iraq
Stunning news from the NY Sun:
With the eyes of the world focused on the Middle East peace talks in Annapolis, Md., President Bush’s war tsar, Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, quietly announced that the American and Iraqi governments will start talks early next year to bring about an end to the allied occupation by the close of Mr. Bush’s presidency.
The negotiations will bring to a formal conclusion the U.N. Chapter 7 Security Council involvement in the occupation and administration of Iraq, and are expected to reduce the number of American troops to about 50,000 troops permanently stationed there but largely confined to barracks, from the current 164,000 forces on active duty.
“The basic message here should be clear. Iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own. That’s very good news. But it won’t have to stand alone,” General Lute yesterday told reporters in the White House.
Bringing the war to a close by the end of 2008 will ensure that the next president will face a fait accompli in Iraq, a fact that will further remove from the presidential election the Iraq war as an issue of contention.
Democrats will, of course, try to claim that they forced the troops withdrawals on an obstinately reluctant administration. But as Ed Morrissey notes,
Given the Democrats’ inability to affect the war strategy, their argument will be rather weak, and they still will have to explain the rush to surrender in the spring of 2007, led by Harry Reid’s declaration of defeat on the Senate floor.
Not to mention the inane ranting of House Democrat leader and supposed military “expert” Jack Murtha, or the similar blather of Senate doofus, Dick Durbin.
If this comes off anywhere near as planned, the flip-flopping by congressional Democrats will be like the floor of the Naha, Okinawa fish market at 5:00 A.M.
Republicans will rightly claim that they remained steadfast in their commitment to victory, that they were the ones who put their faith in General David Petraeus’ strategic “surge” plan and the men and women of the United States military, and that Democrats’ earlier calls for surrender in Iraq only shows that the Dems simply cannot be trusted to effectively guide the country’s defense policies.
Incidentally, Bill Clinton’s latest, attempt at triangulation, stating that he has always been opposed to US actions in Iraq, is hardly likely to help his wife’s candidacy come next November, when close to 2/3 of the US combat forces will be drawn down in Iraq. The Clintons’ alignment with the hard left radicals won’t sit well with the more rational middle of the electorate.
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