Bush decision on troops deployment political?

[shockingelk]

I'm looking at this: http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2174678

SIOUX CITY, Iowa U-S officials say President Bush has decided to bring home tens of thousands of American troops from posts around the world -- most from Europe and Asia ... The officials say Bush will shift about 70-thousand uniformed military personnel as part of the largest troop realignment in years.

Kerry has made it a campaign promise to increase active duty troops by 40K. If 70K troops are brought home from places like Europe, that will give Republicans the ability to:

a. Criticize Kerry for not following through on a campaign promise. "Kerry hates the military."
b. Criticize Kerry for following through on his campaign promise. "We didn't need them. Kerry cannot run the military."

The good part about it is it seems the Republicans are planning ahead for what they'll do after they lose the WH.

Can anybody play devil's advocate and think of a logical reason why this decision is being made so late in Bush's term?

[molly]

1. They will come home - then be deployed to Iraq

saw it on C-Span.....

on edit - articles like this REALLY PISS ME OFF!!!! They are so absolutely misleading :grr:

[snippy]

4. And the troops currently in Iraq will begin training for the Next Bush War

[JPJones]

2. It's too early to worry about nuances in a Kerry admin

Winning the election is the important thing now.

The troop withdrawal makes sense for a lot of reasons. The Iraq occupation is not going well.

[shockingelk]

6. How is it not an election issue:

Kerry: "We need to increase troop levels."
*: "We can move them around from where they're not needed."

The part I'm looking at is that *'s decision was not made until after Kerry said what his plan was.

If Kerry had announced he wanted to move troops around like Bush is doing, they could have made another decision. It seems to me they intentionally failed to deal with a problem until they knew which decision to make that they could use to criticize Kerry no matter what he does.

Our military being spread thin is not exactly something that just cropped up. Why did they postpone dealing with it for so long? Is there any rational reason why they acknowledge the problem now, but denied it before? I'm really trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but can't think of a reason why their actions are rational. I think it's political, their reasoning.

[volosong]

3. Bush Has Weakened American By Troop Over Deployment

Our troops are obviously seriously over extended weakening our general military capability.

Bush may wish to regroup to defend against the fact that he has militarily weakened America,

Or, he may be planning more military invasions around the world!

[Paradise]

5. Everything they do has a politically logistic motive.

Good post. We must think ahead. :think:

[asjr]

7. Thinking ahead is one way to diagnose the disease

of Bushco. There are so many scenarios thought up in this administration, we must be one step ahead. Analyzing this regime should be made a college course. There is much to be learned about corruption. One thing we do know is there will be a "surprise" within the next couple months.

[Paradise]

10. You are so right in everything you've said.

We have been complacent for so long.
No more Mr. Nice Guy may be our only hope but can we do it, can we change who we are;
do we want to, should we.
I like who we are but I'm no General, and have no doubt that this is war.

[shockingelk]

11. What states will they move them to? "Battleground states"?

70K is a lot of troops, and being that most career military tend to vote Republican, 70K might be enough to tip the scales of a close election.

[Paradise]

12. oh, you're so right.

there's a lot of fancy footwork going on here.
these boots are meant for voting.

[chuck555]

8. Old stuff.

haliburtan needs the new contracts. it is political.

[checks-n-balances]

9. Yep - when has Boosh ever done anything in office that isn't political?

eom

[Paradise]

13. you noticed...

how is it that they all say "boosh"?

[Jackpine Radical]

14. Jeez--I thought they were saying "Bouche"--

"The Mouth."

[Paradise]

15. lol. you're correct. it is bouche. :) n/t