Speedy Turnover?

Bush agrees to speedy turnover in Iraq By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer AMMAN, Jordan - President Bush said Thursday the United States will speed a turnover of security responsibility to Iraqi forces but assured Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Washington is not looking for a "graceful exit" from a war well into its fourth violent year. (Yahoo News)

Question. Why, suddenly, is the President of the United States, who, until just before the election said that cutting and running was a bad thing, now declaring that a speedy turnover (what ever that means) is in the United States best interest?

Do not mistake my question. I think that 1) it is well past time to get out of Iraq, a country the United States had no moral or frankly legal authority to invade in the first place and 2) it is time for the new government in Iraq to start acting like a government or get out of the way and let the chaos that is currently swirling have its way and then die down.

What is surprising, at least to me and many others, is that the current administration did not see any of this coming, or if they did, ignored it. In the last 10 years, we have seen the chaos that ensued from the death of a tyrant of a phony made up country of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. The world witnessed the warlords take over and the genocide ensue. Iraq was no different other than it was the United States that over set the ruler and caused the chaos to move faster than it otherwise might have. And to what goal? This is where we have to wait for history to weigh in, but I suspect, in the end, the goal will be show to be nothing but a controlling interest in Middle East oil. There can be no other justification (and I use the term very loosely because I do not see it as being a justification for an immoral act).

Further, the incoming Congress of the United State, voted in to replace the Republican mess that the current administration is only leading, is still not with the program. Everyone is pussyfooting around the issue of a timetable. This is not acceptable. There is nothing keeping the United States in the region. Nothing. Bring the troops home by the end of Fiscal 2007. That should be the deadline. And while you are at it, pull them out of Afghanistan as well. There is nothing to be gained by having large numbers of red coats searching for guerrilla soldiers. Surely the War of Independence taught that lesson.