Adding to Murtha's plan to "re-deploy"....

[kentuck]

John Murtha is on the right track. Our troops are magnets for much of the terrorism in Iraq. Our troops are targets. We are the enemy. It makes sense to "re-deploy".

In other words, we need to pull pack. Perhaps to one of the large 14 bases we have reportedly been building in Iraq? The Marines would be used as a strike force if they were needed but they would not be in the middle of the towns and villages. In Vietnam, the Marines could walk thru a perfectly serene village and within an hour, there would be violence and killing. That's the way of the US Marines, unless they have made drastic changes since Vietnam, which I doubt.

But to add to Murtha's plan, we not only need to "re-deploy" our troops but we need to assure the Iraqis that we will withdraw our troops totally once the country has become stable and somewhat "democratic". We need to offer something to the Iraqi people other than just "re-deployment", in my opinion. I think this is a plan that might work.

[tx_dem41]

1. Murtha was talking about redeploying OUTSIDE of Iraq.

Kuwait being the obvious location.

[blm]

2. That's the emphasis of Kerry's withdrawal plan. SHOW the Iraqis we won't

stay, NO permanent bases, let Iraqis benefit from reconstruction - not American corporations, use diplomacy and political pressure NOT GUNS and military.

[KharmaTrain]

3. There Needs To Be An Honest Broker

How do you disengage with an enemy you don't know. I still don't have a clue who it is that is setting those IEDs and, even more important, who is funding them. Our troops are truly blind in the field as not only don't they know who their enemy is, but where they are or what their objectives are. This regime has a "half-in, half-out" attitude now...not enough troops to really control the nation, but just enough to keep the strife and war and money rolling.

While I find the "over-the-horizon" option...from Qatar...as a half-assed measure at best. The end game is to get out of this mess and try to keep the damage that's already been done to a minimum. IMHO, the best exit would require involving a Pan-Arab force to "give us cover"...turn this mess over to the Arab League and be prepared to pay financially to clean up as much of this mess as we can.