General Time Horizon for Iraq withdraw reached

The white house says the U.S. and Iraq have agreed to talk about seeking a general time horizon about the withdraw of troops for Iraq. Iraqi officials are gaining confidence as the amount of violence in the country has gone down and are pushing the United States to agree to a specific timeline to withdraw. The chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff has said he is likely to recommend further troops reductions this fall if violence continues to decline. The white house is touting this as a testament to the improving conditions in Iraq. Perhaps now, after several years, we can get some of our troops back home where they should be. The crisis in Iraq may finally be toning down

But I have an eerie feeling about this. I could have sworn I heard this same statement from Iraq and the white house two months ago and nothing has happened. Maybe its just because I’ve been hearing about proposed troop withdraws in Iraq forever and nothing has happened. I am somewhat pessimistic about the troop withdraws this November.

There is, of course, a possibility that the violent militant groups are toning down the violence until the U.S. troops withdraw and then go out on an all-out offensive to retake the government. Its hard to say. Either way, the full withdraw of the majority of our troops will take more than five years and by that time, we’ll be in some other war or other.