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Surely he knows this. Which is why I believe Bush and his War Cabinet may have another strategy in mind, which is this. The president intends to draw down U.S. forces to a hard core of fighters, perhaps 90,000, backed by U.S. air power, a force 15 times as large as the mobile U.S. force in Afghanistan. This force will carry the brunt of battle in a new war against the guerrillas and terrorists, and be less concerned with winning hearts and minds in the Sunni Triangle than killing enemy fighters. Operation Iron Hammer is the dress rehearsal for the...

"The troops returning home are worried. 'We've lost the peace,' men tell you. 'We can't make it stick.' ... Friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American. ... Never has American prestige in Europe been lower.... Instead of coming in with a bold plan of relief and reconstruction we came in full of evasions and apologies.... A great many Europeans feel that the cure has been worse than the disease. The taste of victory had gone sour in the mouth of every thoughtful American I...

THE FRONT PAGE of the November 7 Washington Post says it all. The first headline, in large type: "Bush Urges Commitment to Transform Mideast." Below, in slightly smaller type: "Pentagon to Shrink Iraq Force." And below that: "Iraqi Security Crews Getting Less Training." It's a jarring juxtaposition. The president eloquently makes the case for a necessarily and admirably ambitious foreign policy. Yet his own administration's deeds threaten the achievement of his goals. In his fine speech to the National Endowment for Democracy last Thursday, the president made the case for "a forward strategy of freedom" in the Middle East. He...

  June Is Too Soon! Rev. Ken Joseph Jr. (archive) November 17, 2003 June Is Too Soon! Shivers went up my spine as I read the sudden announcement of a tentative agreement to disband the Coalition Provisional Authority and American control in Iraq by June. First for the shocking lack of understanding of the conditions on the ground or even a cursory understanding of history and second because I had been told over and over by Iraqis that precisely this would happen. I was in Iraq before the war during Sadaams time against the war.  Seeing and experiencing the sheer terror that...

Rumsfeld: No Immediate Iraq Withdrawal NewsMax.com WiresMonday, Nov. 17, 2003KADENA AIR BASE, Japan -- The new accelerated plan for restoring self-rule in Iraq does not mean U.S. troops will withdraw anytime soon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday. In an interview en route to a U.S. Air Force base in southern Japan, Rumsfeld said the United States continues to plan to rotate a new contingent of troops into Iraq next year, with no final pullout date set yet. Accelerating the political process will not affect military planning, he said. "This has nothing to do with U.S. troops and coalition troops...

Bush plans fast exit from Iraq THE United States is clearing the way for a substantial withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq within eight months. A new deal for the handover of power will be hailed by Tony Blair and President George W Bush this week as a significant step towards the planned withdrawal. An agreement to introduce civilian rule by June 2004 was announced by the US-appointed Iraqi governing council yesterday. A transitional government will prepare for elections by the end of 2005. Blair and Bush will counter protests threatening to mar the president's state visit, which starts in...

Bush speeds up the exit strategy By Alec Russell in Washington and Anton La Guardia (Filed: 13/11/2003) President George W Bush ordered his senior envoy in Iraq last night to speed up the handover of power to local politicians, following warnings from the CIA of impending disaster and a suicide bombing that killed 18 Italian paramilitary police. Police stand outside the damaged Italian headquarters following the bomb attack in Nasiriyah A lorry, packed with explosives, was driven into an Italian military police compound in the southern city of Nasiriyah, destroying the building. Nine Iraqis were killed and about 80 injured....

Iraq is turning out to be a tragedy of much greater depth than either the pro-war or anti-war camps, with their shallow certainties, are prepared to deal with. Hardcore Western leftists still can't get interested in anything going on in that country except American "imperialism." Having endured the embarrassment of Iraqi jubilation at Saddam Hussein's ouster, they're back in the ballgame now with things going badly for the US, and they're raising their voices for immediate withdrawal. Those who want to sound responsible say the US should hand the job over to an international force – as if any country...

'Success' is Exit Strategy in Iraq, Rumsfeld Says By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2003 - With "success" as the exit strategy, the numbers of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq in the meantime "will depend on the security situation on the ground," the Defense Department's top civilian told foreign journalists here today. Speaking to reporters at the State Department's Foreign Press Center, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld added that American troop strength in Iraq also depends "on the pace at which Iraqi security forces are able to assume additional responsibilities." DoD planners estimate...

Next year's election is now Bush's main focus. Analysis by Marian Wilkinson in Washington. George Bush does have an exit plan for Iraq, and its blurry outline was unveiled this week as the worst violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein exploded in the country. Bush flagged his strategy in a rare news conference on Tuesday. It calls for rapidly increasing the "Iraqification" of the conflict. By Thursday the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, were spelling out what this meant. The idea is to push many more Iraqi police and security officials into the front lines...

US explores its Afghanistan exit options By Syed Saleem Shahzad KARACHI - With Afghanistan daily slipping into more anarchy and chaos, United States authorities, aware that they are unlikely to ever bring stability to the country by military means, continue to explore political avenues that ultimately could pave the way for them to withdraw from the country. First there were the talks at the Pakistan Air Force base in Quetta with "moderate" elements of the Taliban (which immediately failed due to the US insistence on the sidelining of Taliban leader Mullah Omar). Then came the formation of Jaishul Muslim, a...

Why creating Iraqi government and security can't be done overnight. THOUGH FAR FROM FINE-TUNED, the Bush administration has finally developed an exit strategy for Iraq. The strategy has two prongs. Through the State Department, the administration will seek to "internationalize" the forces of occupation by obtaining a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would "authorize" Turks, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Moroccans, Indians, and even the French to send their troops. Concurrently through the Defense Department, it will strive to create larger all-Iraqi police and military forces that can work together with--and ideally replace--American soldiers who battle former Baathists, militant Sunni fundamentalists, and...

No Quagmire Here! Another president began a war promising a "chance to test our weapons, to try our energy and ideas and imagination for the many battles yet to come." He said that as conditions change, "we will be prepared to modify our strategy." The heralded modifications never came, nor did an end to the war. President Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty turned out to be a bigger quagmire than Vietnam. Would that the Democrats would give the war in Iraq as much time to succeed as they are willing to give the "War on Poverty," now entering its 40th...

Today, one hears people everywhere, from pundits, to politicians asking the same question about the Afghanistan campaign. Everyone wants yo know, "What's the exit strategy?" Asking about an "exit strategy" in our current situation demonstrates a lack of understanding that borders on a reality disconnect. The question comes of course from "The Powell Doctrine", which Secretary of State Powell enunciated while he was still Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Then Chairman Powell stated several critical prerequisites to committing the United States military to any foreign intervention. Key among them, if we send in troops, we go in with...