Exit-with-honour... *rolls eyes*

[Adrian II]

This is apparently the new Bushite buzz-phrase.

What crap.

Look, you can hardly expect the president of the United States to say: 'Run guys, it was all a big mistake!' The troops will have to be withdrawn sooner or later anyway. The next issue for Washington will be whether the U.S. wants to leave military bases behind and whether the Shiites-that-be are going to like the idea.

$10 says they aren't.

[Sjakihata]

Honour is objective. Just kill a lot of enemies, preferbly not while they run, get 9 honour and chop even more down.

[KukriKhan]

Look, you can hardly expect the president of the United States to say: 'Run guys, it was all a big mistake!' The troops will have to be withdrawn sooner or later anyway. The next issue for Washington will be whether the U.S. wants to leave military bases behind and whether the Shiites-that-be are going to like the idea.

$10 says they aren't.

I'll take that bet.

There will be US bases in Iraq, after the withdrawal. Having a forward-deployed position in the middle-east was/is, I've suspected for a long time, one of the major undeclared reasons for going there in the first place.

Unless you're betting on Iraqis liking the idea...in which case, no bet.

[Adrian II]

Unless you're betting on Iraqis liking the idea...in which case, no bet.

That is what I meant: the Shiite government is not going to like it.

They may go along with it in return for American guarantees of protection in case of 'foreign agression or infiltration'. It'll be a tenuous arrangement at best, but let us hope that it will help stabilise the region. Relative peace, stability, growth and diplomacy seem to be the best vehicles for the region's long-term reform.

Yes, I know that sounds as if I am talking out of my rectum. It is just that I wouldn't know a better solution to the problems that are accumulating there.

[ichi]

It will be a remarkable coincidence how the withdrawal or drawdown or exit or whatever will be carefully timed to occur just prior to the 2006 elections in the US. Late Spetember, early October, we will heroically achieve our objectives.

ichi

[A.Saturnus]

Look, you can hardly expect the president of the United States to say: 'Run guys, it was all a big mistake!' The troops will have to be withdrawn sooner or later anyway. The next issue for Washington will be whether the U.S. wants to leave military bases behind and whether the Shiites-that-be are going to like the idea.

$10 says they aren't.

I expect him to say "we pull out because the job is done and we can leave now". I mean I morally expect that.