Ok, just a guess here but this is how I see this playing out.
Right now the news is saying that this is contradicting the White House stance on the plans for troop positioning. The Bush Admin will over the next few weeks start to adopt this idea because "suddenly" a lot more stories about the Iraqi troops abilities and readiness will appear, therefore seemingly giving credibility to what Chalabi is saying.
These statements by Chalabi today will ultimately help Bush in the long run because he will start to support Chalabi's position and by summer time there will be a small troop removal. If any, it will be the troops who have been ordered to stay longer than they were supposed to, then National Guard Reserve troops. This will happen in time for the November 2006 elections where the GOP does NOT want to see another stinging defeat. They can't afford that. It will start to sway approval of Bush's handling of the war up and his overall approval because currently, there is a lot of Republican voter backlash. This political position is starting to hurt him everywhere else because the Congress can hardly pass anything in its favor anymore and the new GOP leadership was seriously damaged in his special election where every one of his propositions were shot down. The indictments, poor handling of the Katrina aftermath and poor following of the fiscal conservative way of running government have made his own base start to question why they believe in him. This is exactly what they needed. It's the first step in saving Bush's butt.
Anyways, Chalabi will run in the next election and more than likely win a very influential position in the Iraqi government. Something he's yearned for his entire time as a CIA operative and paid employee of the US government. He was receiving about $340,000 a month for his views on Iraq and it's supposed "stash" of WMD's. Let's also not forget that it was "Curveball" that supplied the information to Chalabi about those supposed "WMD's". It was either his nephew or his nephews friend that was also a drunk along with being Curveball.
But like I said, it won't matter that Chalabi was damn near ousted about a year ago and is now back in power. It won't matter that his flawed intelligence was used as part of the justification for the war that cost at least 2050 American Soldiers lives, countless injured soldiers and untold numbers of Iraqi soldiers and innocent citizens. It just exposes the power of the hidden structure of the US government. Karl Rove is back in the game.
I have no doubts that this entire facade will be fabricated right before our very eyes.
This is Bush's way out of the War in Iraq.
Story below:
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Chalabi: U.S. Troops May Leave Iraq in '06 By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 27 minutes ago
U.S. troops could begin leaving Iraq in significant numbers sometime next year, so long as Iraqi forces are properly armed and trained by then, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi told a U.S. audience on Friday.
Chalabi, the controversial former exile who came to New York after meetings with top U.S. officials in Washington, said the Iraqi army should be equipped with American weaponry and properly trained to protect itself against the armies of its neighbors, which include Syria and Iran.
They must also be given "more latitude" in recruitment, he told a gathering at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"If we do the right thing together, I think significant American troops can be withdrawn from Iraq without causing a serious security threat during 2006, next year," he said.
Chalabi's prediction contradicts the message from the Bush administration, which has refused to set a timetable for withdrawal for the estimated 150,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq.
Earlier this year, U.S. military officials said they thought they could begin fairly substantial troop withdrawals next spring. But they have since backed off that claim, and in October, the commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad said it will take up to two years for the Iraqi army to have the military leadership and supplies it needs to operate on its own.
Chalabi, who plans to run in Iraq's Dec. 15 parliamentary election, received a warm reception from the council and moderator Fouad Ajami, a professor at Johns Hopkins University.
He got one question about claims that his exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, may have fed information to the U.S. that Saddam Hussein had amassed hidden arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. His critics say that helped fuel President Bush's case for war.
"I want to tell you that the fact that I perpetuated a case for war based on weapons of mass destruction is an urban myth which is not rooted in reality," he said, echoing remarks he made in Washington earlier this week.
The only tense moment during the talk came when Arianna Huffington, a columnist and blogger who has opposed the Iraq war and criticized Chalabi, tried to follow up the question on intelligence but was cut off by the moderator, Ajami, who refused to call on her. The actor John Cusack, a fellow Bush administration opponent and blogger on her Web site, sat next to her quietly looking on.