Sixteen It Is
Posted by Phoenix Woman on December 3, 2008
Attackerman over at The Great FDL Borg reminds us of what certain TradMed pundits said about Obama’s deciding to keep Robert Gates on as Secretary of Defense:
Here’s Max Boot on the implications of Gates’ reappointment:
This all but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq…
And here’s Mara Liasson, the token liberal commentator on Fox News:
16 months has gone out the window, I think we can say that.
Why is Spencer reminding us of these pontifications? Because guess what — Gates has signed onto Obama’s timetable:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates signaled a willingness Tuesday to forge ahead with two key priorities for the incoming Obama administration: accelerating the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
As the only Republican Cabinet member asked to stay on by President-elect Barack Obama, Gates told reporters that military commanders are looking at ways to more quickly pull troops out of Iraq in light of the 16-month timetable that was a centerpiece of the Democrat’s campaign.
He also said it will be a high priority to work with the new Congress on legislation that will enable the U.S. to close the detention center at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, where about 250 terrorism suspects are still being held.
This really shouldn’t surprise anyone. Gates is part of the crowd that hung with Brent Scowcroft, and Scowcroft was one of the strongest voices opposing the 2002 PNAC-Platoon-planned invasion of Iraq. Whatever else Gates may be, he’s not particularly fond of wars of choice.
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6 Responses to “Sixteen It Is”
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MEC said
What really doesn’t surprise me is that Boot and Liasson are wrong. Again.
Phoenix Woman said
Being a conservative pundit is wonderful, isn’t it? You get paid to be wrong.
Charles II said
Without in the slightest defending the idiotic pundits:
First, Obama’a 16 months began about two years ago. He did not have the power to make it happen, but it is, well, two years later. And no one will count the next month and some days against that.
Second, the Iraqis have provided a timetable for American withdrawal. In the end, that’s the one that will matter. If some American troops remain in Iraq sixteen months from now, the only people who will care will be their families… and the pundits.
And third, Gates is only in favor of losing wars of choice. There’s nothing in his past to think that he believes in any restraint on the use of military power. He’s just not insane. That’s a huge improvement, of course.
Phoenix Woman said
Charles, I’ve yet to see a SecDef who didn’t believe in using military power. That would be like a working butcher who was a vegan.
As for the sixteen months beginning two years ago: This is why the people who say that the US is never going to leave Iraq are mistaken. It’s not going to be a situation such as obtains in NATO nations, where we have bases, but more like how we left Vietnam. It probably won’t be quite as chaotic as the Vietnam pullout — there likely won’t be scenes of people trying to leap onto the final helicopters leaving the embassy — but it will be just as comprehensive. It’s not going to be a situation where we can leave troops in the shiny new super-bases that got built. As Steve Gilliard said before he died, Moqtada al-Sadr will be drinking coffee at the Balad Starbucks in the relatively near future. And there’s not a thing the PNAC crowd can do to stop that.
Stormcrow said
I don’t see where PW and Charles are in any fundamental disagreement about who holds the cards in Iraq, and what the consequences will be.
The Iraqis can eject us whenever they want to. It’ll cost them some time and some lives should they feel compelled to use force. But it will happen.
I’ve found the last six months of SOFA news to be howlingly funny. A “agreed-upon” SOFA which allows us to stay in Iraq until Sol slides off the Main Sequence of the Hertzsprung Russell diagram is duly announced by the lapdog press, supposedly “agreed to” by both parties. And the very next day, Nouri al Maliki pipes up and says “No, we didn’t agree to that. We agreed to this“. Where “this” is invariably something that gives us time to wrap up our affairs and pack our bags, but that’s it.
Wash, rinse, repeat. But nothing ever changes.
What will happen has become so clear that even the Busheviks finally gave up.
I get a kick out of the commentators who still call al Maliki a “puppet” at this late date. The Bush regime certainly thought he was. But the strings are 8000 miles long, and when they come unstrung, there isn’t any way to feasibly reattach them.
I don’t suppose Max Boot is going to shut his pie hole any time soon, though. If the last six endless years have not managed to completely discredit him with his owners, nothing will. But he’s being rendered irrelevant, and there’s nothing much he can do about that.
The contractors who built those superbases aren’t going to shed too many tears. They’ve already been paid. So the nature of the occupants is a matter of indifference to them.
Phoenix Woman said
A-yep.