'GO LONG' IS NOW CALLED THE 'LILLY PAD' STRATEGY
To me, 'lilly pad' is just code for force projection, which is a bizarrely wagered goal in that region, on almost all sets of circumstance. Think Progress picks up on the possibility that Iraq will "need" the U.S. indefinitely to hold the line against Iran and ... Turkey.
Coupled with these observations and the comments about Algeria just below, "leave Iraq" still means "reduce Iraq to a 'managed conflict' (at least, it all seems to fit together like that):
- The expansive Iraq embassy, getting finished now, 2007, in September! (a project which I used to justify as necessary, given the U.S.' huge responsibilities in Iraq, but now appears to be something far greater.)
- The CBO cost projections based on a drawdown to a 30K troop level
- The four "enduring" U.S. military mega-bases
- A plan to increase the size of the standing U.S. army by ... you guessed it, 30-40K over the upcoming years.
