A "first indication" of the White House bowing to political pressure in Iraq? 110% baloney

why anyone would even bother to print this drivel is totally beyond me...

The Bush administration is developing what are described as concepts for reducing American combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year, according to senior administration officials in the midst of the internal debate.

It is the first indication that growing political pressure is forcing the White House to turn its attention to what happens after the current troop increase runs its course.

how many fracking "first indications" have there been...? lessee, "first indications" we've been promised for two unendurable presidential terms...

• compromise
• bipartisanship
• willingness to change course
• openness
• frank two-way dialogue
• facing reality
• flexibility
• working with congress
• working with our allies
• diplomacy
• seeking input from a wide range of sources
  

and, of course...

• troop withdrawal

and here's precisely why it's drivel...

reason #1...

So far, the concepts are entirely a creation of Washington and have been developed without the involvement of the top commanders in Iraq ... Those generals and other commanders have made it clear that they are operating on a significantly slower clock than officials in Washington...

reason #2...

The officials cautioned that no firm plans have emerged from the discussions.

and the biggest reason of all, reason #3...

The officials declined to be quoted for attribution because they were discussing internal deliberations that they expected to evolve over several months.

if we've learned anything over the past 6 1/2 years, it's that quoting anonymous sources means 1) it's most likely spin, and/or 2) somebody's trying to push the bush in a direction he has no intention of going... on this one, i'm leaning toward the latter... why...? well, gee, read these snippets and tell me i'm wrong...

• Officials say proponents of reducing the troops and scaling back their mission next year appear to include Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They have been joined by generals at the Pentagon and elsewhere who have long been skeptical that the Iraqi government would use the opportunity created by the troop increase to reach genuine political accommodations.

• Any change of course “is going to be the president’s decision,” Mr. Gates said, but one greatly influenced by assessments from General Petraeus and the new American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, who are to provide an assessment of the situation in September.

well, then, if it's "the president's decision," nobody's going anywhere... and, if bush listens to petraeus, something i would highly doubt since petraeus was hired to listen to BUSH, we're definitely not going to see a pull-down... here's odierno, who reports to petraeus...

General Odierno, who has pushed for extending the troop increase into next year, noted that units were in place or available to continue that effort through next April.

gosh, i had no idea so much information could be gleaned between the lines of a wapo story... it's truly amazing what isn't said...

[UPDATE]

with thanks to atrios for pointing the way, you can go visit glenn greenwald who has a whole shitpot full of OTHER very good reasons why this is drivel...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet