On the other hand, maybe not.

It may not happen now, but it just might happen a lot sooner than I ever expected:

With the eyes of the world focused on the Middle East peace talks in Annapolis, Md., President Bush’s war tsar, Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, quietly announced that the American and Iraqi governments will start talks early next year to bring about an end to the allied occupation by the close of Mr. Bush’s presidency.

Now, this may not bring much relief for the Army or its soldiers. One of the commentators on the post I linked thinks President Bush might not actually bring the troops home, but just shift them to Afghanistan. Still, I wonder to what degree this strain on the Army forced Bush’s hand here.

Our all-volunteer forces weren’t designed for this type of conflict, i.e. policing.
Not only was it ill-prepared for the role it was going to play but it was beset with wishful thinking all the way to the very top of our government. Thousands of Americans had to die before Bush or Rumsfeld would admit there was even a problem.

Our “best and brightest” are all used up. The ones that refuse to leave and un-enlist are seeing their fourth and fifth tours already. In order to maintain a viable force there is no option but to court and woo high school drop-outs, miscreants and mentally-ill people in order to full the ranks. The cats out of the bag, Iraq ain’t no picnic and most intelligent Americans aren’t going to be willing to “sign-up” and put their life on the line for some BS war. It would be different if it were a justified war, but this is entirely a war of choice. It’s an absolute crime that our men and women were even sent into this sh.it without the best intelligence, best weapons and the backing of all American. But that didn’t happen, and I’m not going to turn a blind eye and pretend it did. This war needs to end, and it needs to happen now.

Our all-volunteer forces weren’t designed for this type of conflict, i.e. policing.
Not only was it ill-prepared for the role it was going to play but it was beset with wishfully thinking all the way to the very top of our government. Thousands of Americans had to die before Bush or Rumsfeld would admit there was even a problem.

Our “best and brightest” are all used up. The ones that refuse to leave and un-enlist are seeing their fourth and fifth tours already. In order to maintain a viable force there is no option but to court and woo high school drop-outs, miscreants and mentally-ill people in order to full the ranks. The cats out of the bag, Iraq ain’t no picnic and most intelligent Americans aren’t going to be willing to “sign-up” and put their life on the line for some BS war. It would be different if it were a justified war, but this is entirely a war of choice. It’s an absolute crime that our men and women were even sent into this sh.it without the best intelligence, best weapons and the backing of all American. But that didn’t happen, and I’m not going to turn a blind eye and pretend it did. This war needs to end, and it needs to happen now.