Key general calls Iraq pullout plan a ‘disaster’

The Washington Times ^ | Sunday, October 23, 2011 | Rowan Scarborough

[Hunton Peck]

President Obama’s decision to pull all U.S. forces out of Iraq by Dec. 31 is an “absolute disaster” that puts the burgeoning Arab democracy at risk of an Iranian “strangling,” said an architect of the 2007 troop surge that turned around a losing war.

Retired ArmyGen. John M. Keane was at the forefront of persuading President George W. Bush to scuttle a static counterinsurgency strategy and replace it with 30,000 reinforcements and a more activist, street-by-street counterterrorism tactic.

Today, even with that strategy producing a huge drop in daily attacks, Gen. Keane bluntly told The Washington Times that the United States again is losing.

“I think it’s an absolute disaster,” said Gen. Keane, who advised Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was top Iraq commander. “We won the war in Iraq, and we’re now losing the peace.”

U.S. troops will be vacating Iraq at a time when neither Baghdad’s counterterrorism skills nor its abilities to protect against invasion are at levels needed to fully protect the country, say analysts long involved in the nearly nine-year war.

“Forty-four hundred lives lost,” Gen. Keane said. “Tens of thousands of troops wounded. Over a couple hundred thousand Iraqis killed. We liberated 25 million people. There is only one Arab Muslim country that elects its own government, and that is Iraq.

“We should be staying there to strengthen that democracy, to let them get the kind of political gains they need to get and keep the Iranians away from strangling that country. That should be our objective, and we are walking away from that objective.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday warned Iran not to miscalculate the U.S. decision to withdraw its troops.

“No one, most particularly Iran, should miscalculate about our continuing commitment to and with the Iraqis going forward,”

[Crucial]

If Iraq falls to the Islamists, they’ll gain control of rhe entire ME. That will mean WW3.

[rcrngroup]

Wrong country. Karzai is with Afghanistan.

[SampleMan]

I thought this was just following the Bush timetable established in 2008.
Was the general opposed then?

Not really, and I don't know.

There is a matter of how and not just when, as well.

An ordered withdrawal is required. Whether it is smart to withdraw isn't a military decision, but if active duty general officers in charge believe that particulars of this withdrawal are needlessly forcing a dangerous situtation for those in their charge, then they should resign in protest.

[ConjunctionJunction]

The quote comes from BHO’s “The Audacity of Hope”. I found it on page 309, though.

[airborne]

Thank you!

[Chode]

simple proof the 0bama knows as much about military strategy as he does economics...