Out in 16 months?

I'm against the occupation. I believe the only reason we are still in Iraq is because the Administration wants to get rights to Iraqi oil.

The Iraqis are smart enough to wait till we withdraw before settling their regional differences over oil revenues.

So maybe in 16 months, we will have withdrawn over 100,000 troops, leaving 10,000 to 15,000 for special ops and training and guarding the most expensive American embassy ever built anywhere!

I'm thinking most of them should also be out but I'm open to considering need for some very modest presence.

I'm open to allowing those troops who are working as volunteers on schools, hospitals, etc. to be able to be there, preferably under some international charity group auspices.

But the ones I really think need to leave as soon as possible are the 150,000 contract soldiers, mercenaries hired by Halliburton, Blackwater, and all the other corporations that won no bid contracts to provide security paid for by US taxpayers . . . at ten times per person the cost of enlisted US military personnel!

No one talks about them. And they are the ones under the least control and are most hated in Iraq. THEY REPRESENT THE U. S. in the eyes of the Iraqis as much as our regular military.

Get them out of Iraq.