US Troops may be out of Iraq by Dec 31, 2008

I doubt US troups will withdraw by 31 Dec this year, even if an agreement is not in place by then (which I think likely it will be). But even if it isn't, I suspect the troops will stay there pending negotiations with a new president in January - February 2009. I also don't think it will have much impact on the election as 31 December is about 8 weeks after the election, so I can't see this being a factor. I also doubt very much that Bush would announce just before this election on November 4 that he intends to pull US troops out by 31 December this year, citing such a failure to sign an agreement with the Iraqis. I suspect he would be loath to do this, as he has often said that to withdraw troops now in such a precipitate manner would be tantamount to defeat, something he has said he would never allow on his watch.

Since the election is almost two months before 12/31, it probably won't have any impact, unless the GOP makes an announcement just before the election that the withdrawal will take place. And, I wouldn't put it past them to do such a thing, if it were to be true. But, I doubt they'll say anything since they've pushed from early on that departure means defeat and to announce withdrawal would be the same as announcing "we give up." If they brought they home, they would do it in a way that would make it seem like we were the victims, not the quitters.

I'd sure be happy if they did come home but I don't think it would have much impact on the election. If this were two years ago, maybe it would have made a big difference, but now everyone's focus is on the economy. Annie

Actualy this is inacurate. IF no agreament is reached, U.S. troops will be out of most Iraqi cities by this date. Total troup withdrawl by current agreaments will not occur until 2011. As it stands right now, there are only 2 or 3 provinces that re not under full controll by the Iraqi security forces with theU.S. in only a support role. This has been the flow of things all along. Despite all the hype and crying, Iraq is in fact working. It took us almost a hundred years and a civil war to establish our constutitional republic. Iraq has made it to the point we were after the civil war in 7 short years. This is unprecidented in world history.

I don't care how it impacts the election, I just want our men home. I don't have anyone I personally know over there, but the facts are. Intelligence was sent over there before the war started, looking for chemical weapons or any weapons of mass destruction. They didn't find them. That's what the war was suppose to be about, so why were our troups sent over there in the first place? Because Pres. Bush wanted to go in and finish doing what his dad failed to do. So hey, let's put thousands of people's loved ones lives in jeopardy because of a past mess up. I bet if Pres. Bush had a son in the armed forces, he may have thought about it more or found a way to keep his son out of it. Now they are worried that if they bring our soldiers home, we will be admitting defeating bull^*(*&. Bring our soldiers home and quit spending all our money to rebuild a country that we went in and destroyed over a WAR.