Taking Bets: Spring of 2008 Petreaus will decide he needs the 30,000 extra troops - they stay.

[spanone]

and there won't be one fucking thing congress will or can do to stop it.

...and bu$h* knows it.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. No bet

I am willing to lay short odds that Betray Us -- excuse me, Petreaus -- will require an additional 30,000 soldiers on top of the 30,000 who will not be leaving.

[spanone]

5. you are probably more correct than i would like to admit,

[Jim__]

2. I don't think he can keep them there.

My understanding is that there is a Pentagon report that says the military is stretched too thin and we absolutely have to bring some troops back from Iraq.

[minnesota_liberal]

3. General 'Delay Us' will allow drawdown to start in time for '08 election

I predict:

We'll see more frequent photo ops by Bush and key members of his administration during the next year.

Bush will pull out all the stops around Christmas to offset the bad PR from reaching the 4,000 dead U.S. troops milestone, possibly including bringing a token brigade home.

There will be much talk about "stunning progress" being made in Iraq through this winter and into next spring.

Troop reductions will finally begin in June or July and be carefully coordinated to influence the 2008 elections.

[minnesota_liberal]

6. Sounds like the "token brigade by Christmas" is a lock! n/t

[FourScore]

4. Probably right, due to the war in Iran that will be waged by then. n/t