Iraq Dense Minister Sees Need for US Security Help Until 2018

[mod mom]

Source: New York Times

Iraq Defense Minister Sees Need for U.S. Security Help Until 2018
By THOM SHANKER

Published: January 15, 2008


FORT MONROE, Va. — The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.

Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.

Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.

President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up. Given Mr. Qadir’s assessment of Iraq’s military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.

-snip
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/world/middleeast/15military.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/world/middleeast/15military.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[Radical Activist]

1. A long term occupation was the plan from the start.

That should be obvious to everyone by now.

[mod mom]

2. damn right-war is just too profitable to stop. Let's hear what our Democratic

candidates have to say about this insanity.

[frog92969]

6. ........crickets

[Lautremont]

3. I'm not sure I would trust the opinion of a "Dense Minister."

We have a lot of those in Canada at the moment, and almost nothing they say makes any sense.

[Pierogi_Pincher]

5. A 'slip of the keyboard'; the "shoe fits".

(edited for punctuation--just in case.)

[mod mom]

11. Sorry folks-lesson learned spell check is your friend! Consider it a freudian slip.

[Pierogi_Pincher]

12. I wasn't pickin' at you,

and I chose not to use 'Freudian' cuz it was, well, too Freudian. I meant the shoe fits in that the mis-type was appropriate! ;)
(FWIW, I just changed my avatar from hearthrob Al to hearthrob Johnny.)
P_P

[lakeguy]

4. why 2018?

is that when they run out of our oil?

[Stuart G]

7. Minister Sees Need for U.S. Help in Iraq Unitil 2018

Source: New York Times........

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/world/middleeast/15military.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Minister Sees Need for U.S. Help in Iraq Until 2018


By THOM SHANKER
Published: January 15, 2008
FORT MONROE, Va. — The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.
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Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.
Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.
President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up. Given Mr. Qadir’s assessment of Iraq’s military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.
Mr. Qadir’s comments are likely to become a factor in political debate over the war. All of the Democratic presidential candidates have promised a swift American withdrawal, while the leading Republican candidates have generally supported President Bush’s plan. Now that rough dates have been attached to his formula, they will certainly come under scrutiny from both sides.

Read more: Minister Sees Need for U.S. Help in Iraq Until 2018

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Well..........here it is ........the real truth.............who are the chumps now???????????
..If the minister of a country needs the U.S. help for the next ten years, what is the next President going to do?
..How will we untangle the web that the head chimp has woven?

[rodeodance]

8. Bush set this up -whoever the next pres is. --he/she will have so so much

crap to uncrap

[Stuart G]

9. Whoever we elect.........

(As long as it is not a Republican)...the new President will have to use the hardest word in our language to the Iraqis..
........ NO....

...."We can give you some money to rebuild, but you must rebuild yourselves if you want to. If you do not want to, fine, that is your business....... "

If the new President cannot say this, we will be counting up deaths there forever...

[Stuart G]

10. This behavior is insane...

..Staying there is insane. Kinda like "destroying ourselves is insane."

[tabasco]

13. The puppet govt. will evaporate the minute we leave.

I'm sure the quislings want us to stay a long time.

[Stuart G]

14. Now where have I seen this senerio before...

Puppet government falls after U.S. Troops leave...or scale down...........oh where or where has this happened before??