Withdrawal Symptoms: Signs of Pullout from Iraq

By: David Morgan
Topics: Iraq

(Sr. Airman Christopher Hubent/USAF)

Nearly one out of six American service members in Iraq, about 20,000 in all, are involved in a massive logistical operation with one overriding goal: Getting our stuff and leaving.

Johan Spanner writes in The New York Times today about the challenges facing the military as it sets about dismantling about 300 bases and removing 1.5 million pieces of American equipment — everything from weapons and vehicles to coffeemakers — from Iraq.

(Left: U.S. Airmen with the 332nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron (ELRS) check the weight and balance of cargo aboard a C-130 Hercules aircraft, at Joint Base Balad, Aug. 26, 2009. Joint Base Balad, the Pentagon;s biggest aerial port operation, processes more than 950 cargo aircraft, 12,000 tons of cargo and 19,000 passengers per month.)

Six years after the U.S.-led invasion, the "largest movement of soldiers and mat?riel in more than four decades" (according to Spanner) is further complicated by continued attacks for Iraqi insurgents; consideration of what will be left behind for Iraqis; and U.S. military needs in Afghanistan.

Yet the U.S. must still maintain supplies and infrastructure for U.S. troops that remain, and will remain until at least 2011, when 50,000 troops will be stationed in an advisory capacity.

"It's a real Rubik's Cube," says Brig. Gen. Paul L. Wentz, speaking at Joint Base Balad north of Baghdad, the withdrawal effort's command center.

And as preparations for withdrawal ramp up, they become increasingly more difficult to stall, should the situation in Iraq deteriorate.

Major troop reductions will not be happening until January, after Iraqi national elections, but the preparations for those troops' departure are happening now.

Every night, an average of 3,500 trucks roll out on sustainment and redeployment missions, and shipping containers filled with lumber, ammunition and barriers used to defend against car bombs are being hauled off — in some cases, to Afghanistan.

David Morgan
David Morgan is a senior editor at CBSNews.com and cbssundaymorning.com.

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by stuart-johns2 October 9, 2009 5:49 PM EDT

Where are all the republican extremists? They are'nt going to bash Obama for pulling out of Iraq?

Maybe after tonight's "Beck's Comedy Tour" they'll have something to complain about. I think the Nobel Prize may have worn their poor souls out for the night.

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by sjc_1 October 10, 2009 1:06 PM EDT: Souls? If you have no conscience, I am not sure that you have a soul.

by babooph October 9, 2009 5:48 PM EDT

Almost 1000 years since the 1st crusaders were leaving the Christian wars against Islam....those crusades were started by false info too...I wonder if that Pope was an idiot put in by a big shot family?

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by sjc_1 October 10, 2009 1:04 PM EDT: Crusade was one of the first words Bush used about going into the middle east, his handlers soon put a stop to using that word.


by YOUDONTKNOWMEBEECH October 9, 2009 4:29 PM EDT: As The Nobel Prize Winning President Promised......; Reply to this comment


by hungry1968-16 October 9, 2009 2:53 PM EDT: "Nearly one out of six American service members in Iraq, about 20,000 in all, are involved in a massive logistical operation with one overriding goal: Getting our stuff and leaving."

Mercifully, we're finally getting out of this neo con inspired disaster.; Reply to this comment

by MARYWILMA October 9, 2009 2:00 PM EDT

GREAT GREAT WE REALLY NEED TO DO THIS AND SHOULD HAVE DONE IT A YEAR AGO..WE HAVE WORN OUT OUR WELCOME A LONG TIME AGO..SO MANY GOOD SERVICE PERSONS WERE KILLED AND MAIMED BY THE ROADSIDE BOMBS FOR WHAT????. BRING EVERYTHING BACK HOME EVERY TRUCK, EVERY WHATEVER.. AND MAKE THEM PAY US FOR THE WAR IN BARRELS OF OIL IF NECESSARY....LET THEM FIGHT THEIR OWN WARS AND SPEND THE LIVES OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE..

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by gramto8 October 10, 2009 1:38 PM EDT: by MARYWILMA October 9, 2009 2:00 PM EDT
GREAT GREAT WE REALLY NEED TO DO THIS AND SHOULD HAVE DONE IT A YEAR AGO..WE HAVE WORN OUT OUR WELCOME A LONG TIME AGO..SO MANY GOOD SERVICE PERSONS WERE KILLED AND MAIMED BY THE ROADSIDE BOMBS FOR WHAT????. BRING EVERYTHING BACK HOME EVERY TRUCK, EVERY WHATEVER.. AND MAKE THEM PAY US FOR THE WAR IN BARRELS OF OIL IF NECESSARY....LET THEM FIGHT THEIR OWN WARS AND SPEND THE LIVES OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE..
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WHY should they have to pay us for a dam.n thing? WE went over there and attacked them! WE are the instigators here, not the Iraqis! Our soldiers, Marines, and equipment wouldn't be there if not for the unneeded war that Bush involved us in.


by MARYWILMA October 9, 2009 1:59 PM EDT: GREAT GREAT WE REALLY NEED TO DO THIS AND SHOULD HAVE DONE IT A YEAR AGO..WE HAVE WORN OUT OUR WELCOME A LONG TIME AGO..SO MANY GOOD SERVICE PERSONS WERE KILLED AND MAIMED BY THE ROADSIDE BOMBS FOR WHAT????. BRING EVERYTHING BACK HOME EVERY TRUCK, EVERY WHATEVER.. AND MAKE THEM PAY US FOR THE WAR IN BARRELS OF OIL IF NECESSARY....LET THEM FIGHT THEIR OWN WARS AND SPEND THE LIVES OF THEIR OWN PEOPLE..; Reply to this comment


by TheDragonfighter October 9, 2009 1:47 PM EDT: "largest movement of soldiers and matériel in more than four decades" (according to Spanner)- Did Spanner sleep through Desert Storm when we move 3 times the number of troops and equipment to Iraq?; Reply to this comment


by Questionews October 9, 2009 12:46 PM EDT: Iraq has been relatively stable for awhile now. Time for them to take over & fight their own battles. There will be more violence after we leave, but they have to learn to stand on their own. If things get nasty we can always send drones or air support should the Iraqi army get in any real trouble.; Reply to this comment


by RedWings_ninety_one October 9, 2009 12:14 PM EDT: We should've been out of Iraq a long time ago. As a matter of fact, we never should've been in Iraq. President G. W. Bush had no need to finish "Daddy's War." We took our eyes off of the ball with Iraq, and now Afghanistan's situation is deteriorating. I may be 17, but I know that running two wars is bad for the economy, meanwhile you have to make sacrifices with one war or the other. Osama bin Laden is currently in hiding and we don't seem to be doing anything to find him. What did Iraq do to us? Al Qaeda is in Afghanistan and Pakistan along with the Taliban. They killed americans and feel we should all die.; Reply to this comment