but was it worth it? he didn t answer that. gates also tells fox in a tv exclusive that the u.s. would consider keeping troops in iraq beyond 2011 but only if the iraqi government requests it. and the justice department implicating now the leader of the taliban or i should say the pakistani taliban in the bombing deaths of seven c.i.a. employees in afghanistan. the department charging this guy with conspiracy to murder u.s. citizens abroad. and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. last december, a jordanian double agent bombed a u.s. military base in afghanistan. that bombing killed seven c.i.a. workers and six other u.s. citizens. the united states also officially labelling the pakistani taliban as a terrorist group. that happened today. the state department offering up $5 million for information leading to the arrest of this man. well, another victory for the tea party folks against a mainstream republican candidate. who won?
i don t think it s a great idea to keep troops in iraq. it s just the least boad idea. i worry if you leave too quickly you could have a civil war that could become a regional war. by keeping to a timetable the obama administration is repeating one of the problems with the bush administration, rushing to failure. you say to keep the troops longer, unknown how long. they are all supposed to be out by the end of 2011 and all combat forces are to be out by the end of august. the combat force thing is a joke. they will have six or seven combat brigades in iraq but they will have advisory and help trainers. yeah. and i actually think we re going to have 30,000 troops there for many years to come. really? yeah. at the end of the article you write, the best argument against keeping troops in iraq is the one some american military officers make which is that a civil war is inevitable and that
2006. it s a testament both to president bush to an agreement he signed with president al maliki and president obama, who has made decisions on iraq. the next six months in iraq are going to be very difficult and very turbulent. what tom ricks is talking about is this very steep drawdown from 95,000 troops to 50,000 troops over the next six months. general odierno said we might want to see some flexibility depending on conditions. we ll have to see. right now, looking at an election on sunday. the real game starts when the results come out, we try to start form a government and that process will take some period of months. brett, before we go to the elections, let me pick up on what you just said. i think ricks pos sited that it might turn out that the obama administration ends up keeping troops in iraq longer than currently envisioned by the status of forces agreement. do you think that is a likely outcome? well, i was involved in that negotiation and there s a time