Two days before he resigned as defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld submitted a classified memo to the White House that acknowledged that the Bush administrations strategy in Iraq was not working and called for a major course correction...
...the memo calls for examination of ideas that roughly parallel troop withdrawal proposals presented by some of the White Houses sharpest Democratic critics...
The "Above the Line" options -- ones that "could and, in a number of cases, should be done" -- include:
* Conduct an accelerated draw-down of U.S. bases. We have already reduced from 110 to 55 bases. Plan to get down to 10 to 15 bases by April 2007, and to 5 bases by July 2007...
* Withdraw U.S. forces from vulnerable positions cities, patrolling, etc. and move U.S. forces to a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) status, operating from within Iraq and Kuwait, to be available when Iraqi security forces need assistance.
