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Many pages have been written on the Iraq War - its origins, its goals, the mistakes made, and the tragic stalement in which Iraq is stuck now - by people whose knowledge and experiences are very impressive. Our intention is not to add another forum that would comment on these matters.

Our goal is to offer a more personal discussion that accompanies a concrete proposition that could act as a catalyst to react positively with the stagnant stalemate in which all the parties to this complex situation find themselves today...

... and our central objective is to give direction toward a concrete and positive outcome for the courageous and suffering men, women, and children in the United States and in Iraq who have sacrificed so much, whether voluntarily or not, in the path of History's unforgiving wake.

This blog is specifically focused on both defending the proposition that it offers while incorporating alternative ideas coming from criticism whether positive and negative. We will post comments that we find constructive whether we agree or not, but this is not an open forum for intellectual narcissism or ideological obstinacy..

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7/15/07

Catching up to spinning wheels is not that hard...

A lot has happened in the past week... other than any visibility for our "modest ultimatum":


Over the defense appropriations debate...
  • A successful GOP filibuster of Senator Webb's amendment that would enforce equity between time deployed and time in "the rear"... 
  • The House passes an amendment with a timetable that calls for combat forces withdrawn by April 2008... 
  • Senators Warner and Lugar will offer an amendment that calls for the DOD to prepare for redeployments and other force reductions starting at the end of 2007... but it doesn't bind the President to any action other than contingency planning and Senator Reid says that that is probably not acceptable...
The July assessment of The Surge is released and it is stellar only in the sense of a black hole sucking all the substantively discussable matter out of the dynamic:  though sometimes a glass is half empty and sometimes it is half full, it certainly is not thirst quenching if the waitress takes a dirty one out of the washer out of laziness and indifference...

And the incredible press conference by President Bush hardly needs further dissection.

And to top it all off, the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki, says that the Iraqi security forces are ready to take over immediately if the US decides to withdraw its forces... though he suggests it would be nice to get some heavy weaponry first... Sheesh, what chutzpah!

We've been away from the blog while focusing on direct overtures to elected officials, the press, and experts in military and international affairs to try to get some feedback and traction... and we've frankly been disappointed.   Some have begun to point at the UN Mandate as part of the equation and a few even suggest that the year's end renewal deadline is an opportunity, but nobody suggests that the US should preemptively refuse to accept renewal of the existing terms while explicitly remaining open to a new formulation in which the rest of the world - or at least those nations "motivated" to participate - would take up at least 50% of the endeavor in terms of both national treasures expended and armed forces personnel engaged...

The rest, as they say, is a history yet to be written.


Posted by The NIM Authors...