AFAIK, very few proposals to withdraw the troops intend that all the troops will come out - just the "combat" troops. I think that almost everyone realizes that we're going to be there for a long time, and that means we'll need bases. Whether the arragnement is more like the US presence in Korea, or more like the UK in [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar|Gibraltar], or more like the US base in [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_Naval_Base|Cuba], who can say....

Richard Perle imagined that we'd go in, topple Saddam, find the WMDs, install a new government, and have everyone out in [link|http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/iraq-intro.htm|6 months]; Calabi said 2 years. Few others thought that was realistic - especially once the looting started and things clearly began to deteriorate.

FWIW.

Cheers,
Scott.