mostly a "I'll give the military their orders, and they'll figure out how to get them done".
some flexibility != going back on his word.
it's flexibility, as much as common sense. If all his generals say that 16 months is too severe a pace, and dangerous (for whatever reason) is he really supposed to go "So?".
16, 18, 20, whatever. They need to come home as soon as is safely possible.
exactly.
WOw, who's repeating republican talking points now?
The Republican talking point is "stay the course until victory." Although, sometimes it's "100 years." There was also McCain's more recent "I will never surrender in Iraq."
In any case, the Republicans are much more concerned about staying than they are about our troops' safety.
No kid, the republican talkng point is that we should NOT have timelines for withdrawal. We've been fighting against that ridiculous notion for three years, we even elected a congress based on that very idea.
Here you come along and state that timelines don't matter, just as the rethugs have been saying. It is YOU who are parroting right wing talking points, sonny.
It reminds me of the story of the farmer with a wolf, chicken and grain that needs to cross the river in a boat but can only take two at a time. There has to be strategy involved in a withdrawal, because as the troops come out, there WILL be more attacks, and we need to be sure we don't remove so many so fast that more men die because of it.
yea but
my wolfish dog now eats grain. I don't think he likes it but he's jealous of the horses. If they get grain he sure as hell does.
Adaptation can really screw up planning
most dogfood is mostly corn
to Moveon.org
NO, that is not how it works.
The NCA issues the order to the JCS for a plan for a withdrawl. The JCS then come back with a plan. The NCA then approves or tweaks the plan according to his/her wishes AND the military command structure excecutes his/her orders.
That is how it happens. I agree it may be longer than 16 months. It may be 24 months, and we all know there will be a QRF left on station probably in the size of 15-20,000 soldiers not including support and C&C groups.
However, if the NCA says he wants out...guess what...the military gets out. Period. Full stop.
