Iraq War: US withdrawing soon?

Via Larry Johnson's No Quarter blog, I just came across the resources at the Oxford Research Group's Web site. This Monthly Briefing for March 2006 by Paul Rogers has the following to say about the prospects for an early US withdrawal from Iraq:

Whatever happens in the coming months in Iraq, there are no indications whatsoever of a wholesale United States withdrawal from the country. There may well be a draw down of a few thousand troops in the run up to the November Congressional elections, but this relates to US domestic politics. What is more revealing is a series of reports that the United States is investing heavily in building programmes that allow for long-term basing of US troops at a number of key sites in Iraq. In this respect there has been no change in policy. What is still sought is a stable pro-American client government in power in Baghdad, with the United States maintaining perhaps 20,000 troops in the country and acting as a final guarantor of Iraqi government stability. In the current circumstances such an aim is implausible in the extreme, but there are no indications of any alternative policies coming out of Washington even if the war is now into its fourth year. (my emphasis)

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