The troops are not coming home....

[kentuck]

The Bush Administration will have to break the news quickly before they get their hopes up. Many have been over there for a long time and are looking forward to coming home. It's not going to happen anytime soon. It will be a challenge for the Administration to break this news to them and still keep their support and keep their morale, what is left, up to a fighting level.

This will probably be a priority in the next few days - to inform the families and the troops that the capture of Saddam has been a wonderful event but it is not going ot change their lives a whole lot. This will be discouraging to them at first. If they continue to be attacked and are killed at the present rate, this could be an issue that comes back to haunt the Administration by election time.

[sleipnir]

1. And how to explain the new troops that are rotating over in a few weeks.

I'd love to hear that one. The Saddam thing will be another 3 week high, then it'll be back to business as usual in Iraq.

[eileen_d]

2. Yes - I'm not much for predictions

as to whether this will come back to "haunt" the Bush administration, but what this will truly mean for the U.S. troops in Iraq is a big question mark, and that will (hopefully) be a focus of the news media.

I have a friend scheduled to go to Iraq (NG) in January and I wonder if that will be affected (personal reasons of course)

[JVS]

3. This is Mission accomplished II

The bodies will keep coming.