For a long time our tactics during the war were basically "clear," not "clear and hold." Some city in Iraq would be taken over by al Qaeda or the insurgents, and be used as a staging point for attacks elsewhere. The U.S. would go in and fight a pitched battle to push them out, and they would head someplace else. Our forces would follow them, and pretty much leave the first place hanging. Anybody who followed the news during this time could see this happening.

One of the main things accomplished by the surge wasn't an increased number of troops, it was a complete change in tactics that emphasized U.S. troops integrating with Iraqi troops and actually stationing themselves inside the population areas rather than on distant bases. Not just clearing, but holding. Some of this had been done in local places by individual commands before the surge, but Petreaus made it policy.

(I posted a detailed report with maps showing how this process worked a while back, and I expect you looked at it.)

Obama is proposing going back to the old way of doing things. Fly in, bomb the shit out of something, leave the silver bullet behind, and flee back to whatever "over the horizon" place Obama has in mind until the roaches come out again. Odds are excellent he has never given this any real thought. His exact quote:

In order to end this war responsibly, I will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. We can responsibly remove 1 to 2 combat brigades each month. If we start with the number of brigades we have in Iraq today, we can remove all of them 16 months. After this redeployment, we will leave enough troops in Iraq to guard our embassy and diplomats, and a counter-terrorism force to strike al Qaeda if it forms a base that the Iraqis cannot destroy. What I propose is not – and never has been – a precipitous drawdown. It is instead a detailed and prudent plan that will end a war nearly seven years after it started.

Remember, in liberal thinking "U.S. out of Iraq" and "End the War" mean exactly the same thing. Any destruction and death after that doesn't count, same as any before we got there doesn't count. See also: Vietnam.

Just FYI, right now, most of the action in Iraq is concentrated in Iraq's north, particularly in Mosul, which still has a major ratline to Syria. There was a major truck bomb attack on an Iraqi facility in Mosul just this week.

You know, other than Vietnam and Iraq, I can't think of any other war in American history where anyone ever raised the concept of an "exit strategy." Interesting, isn't it.