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For those not familiar with the Dayton Process-
"U.S. Department of State
95/11/01 Fact Sheet--Bosnia: The Dayton Process
Bureau of Public Affairs

FACT SHEET

Bosnia
The Dayton Process

On November 1, the parties to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia began participating in high-level political talks at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside Dayton, Ohio. The purpose of the "proximity peace talks" is to encourage the parties to reach a comprehensive regional settlement.

The sessions are building on principles reached in Geneva September 8 and in New York September 26. These include:

o The preservation of Bosnia as a single state containing the Muslim- Croat Federation and a Bosnian Serb entity;

o The 51/49 percent formula as a basis for territorial arrangements;

o A constitutional structure establishing the institutions of a central government and specifying relations between the two territorial entities;

o The necessity of free and fair elections;

o Respect for human rights.

The parties to the conflict are represented in the Dayton negotiations by the Presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia.

Assistant Secretary Richard Holbrooke, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, and EU Negotiator Carl Bildt are co-chairing the talks. Other Contact Group countries (France, Germany and Britain) are represented at the political director level.

There is no agreed date for the conclusion of the talks, but if the talks are successful, they will be followed by a conference on implementation of the settlement in London and an international peace conference in Paris.

The substance of the current talks includes the range of territorial and constitutional matters. Among the outstanding issues are:

-- The location of the internal boundary between the Bosnian-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb entity;

-- The status of Sarajevo;

-- Practical steps for separating forces and establishing a permanent cessation of hostilities;

-- Procedures for free and fair elections under international supervision;

-- Procedures for the return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes.

November 1995 (###)

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/bureaus/eur/releases/951101BosniaDayton.html

"That is very interesting..."
For what appears a long time I have been harping on some of the Iraqi related postings that the game plan has been all along to downsize proportional to the security level perseved then downsize large units in 2007 range, starting during mid later 2006. I only continue to echo what we had read in CENTCOM and other press releases back in 2005 time frame.
We have been judicially bringing the Iraqi onboard in some of the provinces to the point where we turned over the provinces to them. Bagdad and al Anbar obviously are still under direct US military jurisdiction. But Maliki can give the go/no go for given operations to take place. Obviously ar Ramadi is a prime example. Where US and Iraqi forces started to encircle ar Ramadi in preperation for a Fallujah level operation. Maliki and his IM/DM said no/go. We withdrew most of the main forces, and have only been slowling moving northward to eliminate pockets in this city. I believe the last we heard some two weeks back or so was that only some of the northern most part of the city contains remaining al Qaeda and Saddamist.

I would agree that the reduction of FOB's all the way down to some five is quite significant. In fact, I am really surprised they want to dip that low.
Most likely they will be the main airforce bases such as Assad and Balad where we have invested quite a bit of monies and resources in. And would be able to continue maintaining a given level of Airforce/Army/Marine/Navy aircraft (fixed and rotary wing of course), for any air support required in Iraq or quick strikes along any of the borders should it have to come that that, e.g. Syria/Iran.
Lastly. Surely many of us as we read these reports, not only this one but many that have surfaced/invented on the fly/distorted to the best ability of the L/MSM authors, should continue to use caution.
I more then once have found myself go into knee jerk mode, where I should have waited the outcome from people here as well as some of our blog sites as to what really was said/not said.