The US future in Iraq

Steve Benen at the Talking Points Memo cites a Tom Ricks report on the Pentagon plans for a long-term presence in Iraq. One problem with many of these reports and discussions is that they often assume that the choice of how long to stay is exclusively that of the US. It's not, and US troops will eventually have to leave.

But leaving that aside for now, Benen reminds up that all this talk about reducing the number of troops in 2008 and adopting the "Baker-Hamilton" approach and so on has been going on since 2003, with only slight variations in the formula:

This comes on the heels of a report two weeks ago that the White House is "developing what are described as concepts for reducing American combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year." It'd be more encouraging if we haven't been hearing similar rhetoric for years.

Indeed, the same problem exists here. As publius noted today, we've seen reports just like Ricks' for a long while, and none came to fruition.

Tom Englehardt also looks back at how much we previously knew about the administration's plans for permanent bases in Iraq, lately known as the "Korean model": The Great American Disconnect TomDispatch.com 06/07/07.

Tags: iraq, iraq war