Gates: US Troops Won't Drop to 100,000

[maddezmom]

Source: AP


WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he sees no chance that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will drop to 100,000 by the end of the year, guaranteeing a heavy American military presence as the war grinds into its sixth year to the end of the Bush presidency.


President Bush said Gen. David Petraeus, his top commander in Iraq, can take "all the time he needs" to consider further withdrawals after the latest round of cutbacks is completed in July. In the meantime, Petraeus will continue what, until Thursday, had been secret visits to Middle Eastern countries to try to curb the influx of foreign fighters into Iraq.

With 285 days remaining in his presidency, Bush set the course of the war in a speech following two days of testimony before a skeptical Congress by Petraeus and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker.

Bush said that after the troop withdrawals, which already have been announced, end in July, he would give Petraeus 45 days to evaluate the effects of the drawdown. That would be followed by an indefinite period to reassess U.S. troop strength in Iraq, where new flare-ups of extremist violence are threatening to undercut security gains.

Bush argued that last year's troop buildup had succeeded in reducing violence, tamping down al-Qaida in Iraq and allowing normal daily activities to resume in many areas. Because of that progress, Bush said, an already planned reduction in troops can be completed in July.



Read more: http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080411/twl-bush-iraq-38359fb.html

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. And this is news?

Could have told him that back in March 2003................

[saigon68]

2. Oh Goody--- "NEVER ENDING WAR"

</SARCASM>

War Criminals

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. here's a piece of info to share and pass around.....

"Neither the desertions of soldiers in the Mexican War, nor the draft riots of the Civil War, not the anti-imperialist groups at the turn of the century, nor the strong opposition to World War I -- indeed no antiwar movement in the history of the nation reached the scale of the opposition to the war in Vietnam.**** At least part of that opposition rested on an understanding that more than Vietnam was at stake, that the brutal war in that tiny country was part of a grander imperial design.****"

Howard Zinn
http://aep.typepad.com/american_empire_project/2008/04/tomgram-howard.html

[creeksneakers2]

4. I think they'll end up cutting a few later

Iraq is a huge burden on GOP chances this fall. It would be easy for Bush to cut the damage by declaring some great new success in Iraq that would allow another group of troops to come home. Bush could say that the war is working and its all going to be worth it and that he and McCain were heroes for staying the course through all the pressure to get out.

It would look suspicious for Bush to declare this so close to the election, so they are building up the lie that Bush has no involvement at all in Patreaus's judgments. So the cabal can start the ball rolling with an "independent assessment" by Patreaus that the situation improved. They've already fixed it so that anybody who questions Patreaus's honesty gets a one week media uproar and a Congressional condemnation. They can let Patreaus set the stage for Bush to declare victory and McCain to share the credit. Then, after the election,they'll put the troops back in.

Everything Bush has done and is doing is building toward such a climax.