US colonel – TOTALLY leave Iraq by 2010

Col. Timothy Reese, advising Iraq’s Baghdad command, says keeping U.S. forces in Iraq beyond 2010 will only foster a sense of dependency and delayed development in Iraqi forces. Therefore, even though corruption and other problems remain high, it’s time for us to get out:

“As the old saying goes, ‘Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.’ ” Colonel Reese wrote. “Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose.”

Reese said Iraqi troops have become “cooler” to U.S. advisors, imposed new restrictions on troops and done other things that make our presence less and less worthwhile.

Gen. Ray Odierno, Iraq theater commander, stressed, when questioned, that Reese’s comments were NOT official U.S. policy. Speaking of that, official policy calls for us to still have 50K troops there a year from now.