Bush will adopt troop withdrawal

[CommunityEditor]

President Bush is buying into a force-reduction plan for Iraq that will leave as many American troops there by the middle of next year as were there when he decided in January on a temporary buildup plan.

Bush will go on national television Thursday night to discuss his decision to call back 30,000 soldiers and Marines, which mirrors numbers laid out in congressional testimony this week by his overall Iraq commander, Gen. David Petraeus.

While accepting Petraeus’ numbers, Bush will say in his 15-minute address from the White House that conditions on the battlefield will have to be right for it to happen. The White House plans to issue a written status report on Bush’s so-called surge on Friday, White House officials said.

Afterward, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said Bush was ready merely to bring the country back to where it was before the election that put Democrats in control of Congress last November, with 130,000 troops in Iraq.

“Please. It’s an insult to the intelligence of the American people that that is a new direction in Iraq,” she said. “We’re as disappointed as the public is that the president has a tin ear to their opinion on this war.”

Polls showed that revulsion over the war was a crucial ingredient in sweeping control of the Congress to the Democrats from Bush’s Republicans.

The address will stake out a conciliatory tone toward Congress. While mirroring Petraeus’ strategy, however, Bush will place more conditions on reductions than his general did, insisting that conditions on the ground must warrant cuts and that unforeseen events could change the plan.

Petraeus recommended that a 2,000-member Marine unit return home this month without replacement. That would be followed in mid-December with the departure of an Army brigade numbering 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers. Under the general’s plan, another four combat brigades would be withdrawn by July 2008.

That could leave the United States with as few as 130,000-135,000 troops in Iraq, down from about 168,000 now.

Petraeus said he foresaw deeper troop cuts beyond July, but he recommended that Bush wait until at least March to decide when to go below 130,000 and at what pace.

In an unusual admission, Petraeus said he was not sure whether his proposal on Iraq would make the United States safer.

A visibly heated Sen. John Warner, a venerable Republican noted as one of the Senate’s top people on security questions, asked Petraeus about that, and he replied: “Sir, I don’t know, actually. I have not sat down and sorted that out in my mind. What I have focused on and riveted on is how to accomplish the mission of the multinational force Iraq.”


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...ations_070911/

[The Universal Curmudgeon_guest]

Originally Posted by CommunityEditor

President Bush is buying into a force-reduction plan for Iraq that will leave as many American troops there by the middle of next year as were there when he decided in January on a temporary buildup plan.

And there is a problem with this?

If Mr. Bush reduces troop strength to what it was before "Die Schwankung" then he does what those people who want to see a reduction in troops want.

If Mr. Bush keeps troop strength at what it was before "Die Schwankung" then he does what those people who want to see troop strength kept the same.

Thus, by returning to a troop level and strategy that wasn't working, Mr. Bush is being all things for all people - which is the ideal way to win an election - and is "Staying the Course" until he can stand under another banner reading "Mission Accomplished" (or "I am retired - don't bother me." [whichever comes first]).

I guess he will. If he doesn't, some troops there will be have to be extended beyond 15 months, or some units will have to be sent back before their time, or major Guard and Reserves units will have to be sent back. A lot of people are going to die just for GW to be able say that he chose a course of action and rode it all the way to the end. Funny how draft dodging politicians find it so easy to send young men and women to their deaths to protect their own images.

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