Baker group recommends pull back into support role

[FlamingLonghorn]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061130/...usa_group_dc_2

No mention of partitioning Iraq, did you miss a meeting Johnny? Looks like they did this one behind your back...

[Agamemnon]

Bush has rejected this report (and partition) anyway.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/01/wo...rtner=homepage

“I know there’s a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there’s going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq,” the president said during a joint news conference here with Mr. Maliki, referring to the panel’s final report that is expected next week. “We’re going to stay in Iraq to get the job done so long as the government wants us there.”
Mr. Bush also said he and Mr. Maliki would oppose any plan to break up the country, which is riven by sectarian violence. The two appeared together after an hourlong breakfast meeting with aides at the Four Seasons Hotel here that was followed by a 45-minute one-on-one session.

[Agamemnon]

Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki also says Iraqi forces can take full control of Iraq's security in June.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/....ap/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Thursday he believed Iraqi forces would be ready by June 2007 to take full control of security in Iraq, an issue on which he pressed President Bush during their meeting in Amman, Jordan.

"I can say that Iraqi forces will be ready, fully ready to receive this command and to command its own forces, and I can tell you that by next June our forces will be ready," al-Maliki said in an interview with ABC News.

[JohnnyFlame]

Originally Posted by Sowa

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061130/...usa_group_dc_2

No mention of partitioning Iraq, did you miss a meeting Johnny? Looks like they did this one behind your back...

Nope the plan has shifted a number of times and with the Dems winning probably shifted again towards pulling out. Of course if this withdrawl to bases is mainly to those ones in Kurdish territory then it will be just be partition without the name. Have to see what the final plan is and what actually gets taken from the plan and put into practice.

Still depends on what it the real end game. If it's cut and run then they will just say we have trained the Iraquis and they are ready and away we go. Then it all falls apart and that is the ultimate American defeat.

I still think the end result will end up being partition though it won't be called that. I think all that is left to be decided is how it happens. Will the Americans put it in place and call it something like a federation of states? Will the Americans pull out and the Iraqui's manage to cobble it together with getting the Syrians and Iranians to bud out? That would be a sorta victory for the Americans as they could say three loose states working together was just like the good old USA.

Will the three sides agree to work together in a democracy(backed by a military that could take on all comers) and bury the hatchet with the Baathists, Al-Queda and the neighbors all staying out of the picture? I kinda doubt it but that would be a massive win for the Americans if that comes off.

I could see the loose state thing getting pulled off.

Americans could claim partial success.
Iranians and Syrians would be in on the deal and say they solved it.
Iraq's government could claim victory as it kept the country together.