White House to Offer Gradual Cuts as Iraq Plan

[kurtyboy]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — The White House plans to use a report next month assessing progress in Iraq to outline a plan for gradual troop reductions beginning next year that would fall far short of the drawdown demanded by Congressional opponents of the war, according to administration and military officials.

The Reach of War
One administration official made it clear that the goal of the planned announcement was to counter public pressure for a more rapid reduction and to try to win support for a plan that could keep American involvement in Iraq on “a sustainable footing” at least through the end of the Bush presidency.

The officials said the White House would portray its approach as a new strategy for Iraq, a message aimed primarily at the growing numbers of Congressional Republicans who have criticized President Bush’s handling of the war. Many Republicans have urged Mr. Bush to unveil a new strategy, and even to propose a gradual reduction of American troops to the levels before this year’s troop increase — about 130,000 — or even lower to head off Democratic-led efforts to force the withdrawal of all combat forces by early next year.

<...>

Administration officials involved in drafting the new strategy said the White House intended to argue that the troop increase ordered by Mr. Bush had succeeded on several levels in providing more security, with fewer sectarian killings and suicide attacks, and had established the conditions for a new approach that would begin troop cuts in the first half of next year.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/washington/18military.html?hp

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The headline is a little challenged, grammatically--

We'll just see if this is as big a pile of crap as I suspect.

[rodeodance]

1. "portray its approach as a new strategy for Iraq"-- actually, the military has

no more troops to rotate come April.


This is a CON!

[rodeodance]

2. .. But senior officials have said that unless the president chooses to break a promise to limit depl

.... But senior officials have said that unless the president chooses to break a promise to limit deployments to 15 months and guarantee 12 months at home, or to send larger numbers of reservists to Iraq, the troop increase must end next spring.

“The surge, we all know, will end sometime in 2008, in the beginning of 2008, and we will begin probably a withdrawal of forces based on the surge,” Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 officer in Iraq, said Friday. “We must consider the complexity of the threat and deliberately reduce our forces based on the situation on the ground as well as the capability of the Iraqi security forces.”

General Odierno said the five additional brigades added this year under the president’s troop increase were likely to be withdrawn on a timeline parallel to their arrival in Iraq. Under this timeline, which is not yet the official plan, the troop increase would end by April with the five brigades leaving Iraq one each month, with American force levels returning to the troop levels existing before the increase by next August, he said.

Central to the internal debate on a “postsurge” strategy is the extent to which American troops would be able to ask Iraqi forces to take the lead on security missions in critical sections of the country, particularly in Baghdad. Many Democrats in Congress, and even some Republicans, have demanded that Americans hand over more security missions to the Iraqis.

[Kagemusha]

3. btw, what's this reduction of killings the surge has obtained?

Or are we just basking in the summer doldrums while Iraq sizzles?

[youngdem]

4. An election year stunt as a parting gift to the Repuke Party

To give them something to hide behind trying to hang on to their seats. They will say that a responsible, measured withdrawal is underway, and Dems are only being irresponsible in pushing for more. Boo. Boogah, boogah, 9.11, 9.11.

[annabanana]

5. "Oh, and General Patraeus?.. . .never mind."

"Don't actually NEED the report, since we were going to write it anyway."