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Jaidness
04-12-2005, 12:43 PM
U.S. Has No Exit Strategy for Iraq, Rumsfeld Says (Update2)
April 12 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. has no exit strategy or timetable for withdrawing its forces from Iraq and a pull-out depends on the readiness of the Iraqi Security Forces, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
We don't have an exit strategy, we have a victory strategy,'' Rumsfeld told soldiers during a surprise visit to Baghdad, according to a pooled broadcast report from the capital``The goal is to help the Iraqi Forces develop the skills and the capacity to provide their own security.''

The defense secretary arrived in Iraq today and met with Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and President Jalal Talabani, U.S. military spokesman Captain Darren Luke, said by phone from Baghdad. Rumsfeld pressed the two, who were elected by National Assembly members last week, to continue moves toward democracy, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. has 150,000 soldiers in Iraq, the strongest foreign contingent there followed by the U.K., South Korea and Italy. Poland, which has 1,700 troops in Iraq, today announced it would recall its forces by year's end, Polish TVN24 television reported.

The presence of coalition soldiers in the nation of 26 million people is contested by some Iraqis, tens of thousands of whom took to the streets of Baghdad on April 9 calling for U.S. troops to leave immediately. Hundreds of Iraqis demanding withdrawal demonstrated today in Samarra, north of the capital.

The Iraqi government wants U.S. forces to stay until they have quashed the insurgency, which began after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

Insurgents in Baghdad today ambushed a convoy carrying Deputy Interior Minister Tariq al-Baldawi, killing a bodyguard and wounding the official's son and two other people, AP reported. Further north in Mosul, a car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy killed at least five Iraqis and wounded three others, Agence France-Presse said.

Iraqi Police

The Iraqi Police and Army has about 152,000 members, according to Iraq's interim government. Progress is being made in their training, Rumsfeld said today, without indicating how long it would take for them to become fully ``competent.''

``We have to see the institutional capacity developed so that they can take over the security responsibility,'' Rumsfeld said referring to Iraqi Security Forces. ``As that takes place, the responsibility of the coalition forces will decline and they will be able to move away and leave.''

During his meeting with Talabani, Rumsfeld spoke of the need to avoid delays on political improvements and guard against corruption and cronyism in the new government, AP reported. Talabani, who was elected after two months of political deal- making following the Jan. 30 poll, assured Rumsfeld that a cabinet will be in place before the end of the week, AP quoted the Iraqi leader as saying.

The Defense Secretary, whose visit wasn't disclosed until his arrival for security reasons, praised the U.S. soldiers he addressed in Baghdad and told them that they'll earn their place in history for fighting ``a war where victory depends not only on military successes but on reconstruction and civil affairs.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aAzfzbHVpVa4&refer=top_world_news#


``We don't have an exit strategy, we have a victory strategy,'' Rumsfeld told soldiers during a surprise visit to Baghdad, according to a pooled broadcast report from the capital.
I wonder how this makes the soldiers feel?

schsa
04-13-2005, 05:02 AM
No we're just going to wait until all of our soldiers are dead and then consider exiting. I heard this from a soldier a few months ago that we won't be out of Iraq for at least 20 years or more.

So how many body bags will we need???