Excuse me if this has been posted. I think pieces of it have been reported/posted and now it is summarized???? This stuff makes my head hurt. As far as I can tell the headline is wrong. Well, I suppose it could be interpreted that someday troop cuts may be possible. However, it sounds from this that time isn't anytime soon.
Plus, I see Rummy is predicting increased violence. What happened to the Sadr truce and turning over of arms?
Rummy just can't believe everyone is focused on troops being deployed into Iraq. What's wrong with people to want information pertaining to their lives.
Note the way Rummy dined with the Korean soldiers and then went to a Q&A with ours. Only I guess it was only A since they were told don't QThe Associated Press
Updated: 2:16 a.m. ET Oct. 11, 2004
AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - The United States may be able to reduce its troop levels in Iraq after this country’s January elections if security improves and local forces continue to expand and become more effective, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says.
...snip
In a question-and-answer session Sunday with hundreds of Marines assembled in a concrete-lined hangar at this desert base in western Iraq, Rumsfeld was asked what the future holds for the length and frequency of troop deployments in the country.
Rumsfeld, on his first visit to Iraq since its interim government was installed in June, said the insurgent violence is likely to get worse in the weeks ahead, so
troop reductions are almost out of the question. The United States now has about 135,000 troops in Iraq.
“Our hope is that as we build up Iraqi forces, we will be able to relieve the stress on our forces and see a reduction in coalition forces over some period of time, probably post-Iraqi elections,” the Pentagon chief said. “But again, it will depend entirely on the security situation here in this country.”
...snip
Rumsfeld had dinner with South Korean soldiers who began arriving in Iraq last month to provide combat and support forces around the city of Irbil, west of Kirkuk.
Limited Q&A
Before Rumsfeld appeared at the main operating base of the 3rd Marine Air Wing, the approximately 1,500 Marines in his audience were given instructions by Sgt. Maj. Dennis Reed on what not to ask.
“Don’t ask when you’re going home,” he said. “We’ll tell you when you’re going home.”Rumsfeld afterward gave a pep talk and fielded questions at a town hall-style meeting. “We’re so fortunate to be able to count on you in this time of peril,” he said to applause.
...snip
In a brief exchange with reporters after the Baghdad meeting, Rumsfeld grew agitated by questions about the possibility of needing to bring in more American troops before Iraq’s scheduled elections.
“There’s a fixation on that subject!” he said with exasperation. “It’s fascinating how everyone is locked on that.”Rumsfeld: Progress training Iraqis
He asserted that the news media and others are ignoring the fact that the number of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces is growing — standing now at about 100,000 — and that they are fighting and dying.
“They do exist. Over 700 of them have been killed,” Rumsfeld said.
...more
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6221038/on edit: fixed a typo and added a sentence about deployment
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