Four years of promises to draw down the troops by half "next year"

[BurtWorm]

Bullshit collected by Glenn Greenwald:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/05/26/troop_reductions/index.html

Newsday, December 18, 2005:

Trying to buy time with a public impatient over Iraq, President George W. Bush has repeatedly railed against the dangers of setting an "artificial timetable" for bringing home U.S. troops.

Yet the White House has signaled that it does have a timetable - all but saying that troops are likely to start pulling out of Iraq in 2006, possibly enough to cut the U.S. presence there in half, some analysts predict.



CNN, December 8, 2005:
The military may reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq after next week's parliamentary elections, but some of those troops were slated to come home earlier. Meanwhile, others who have not arrived yet may get to stay put, a Pentagon source said Thursday.

It's long been in the works to bring home 23,000 troops after the elections. Those men and women were supposed to come home earlier, but their tours were extended to help beef up security before the December 15 elections, the source said.



AP, April 15, 2004:

The Pentagon formally announced Thursday that it had stopped the planned return from Iraq of some 20,000 American troops, giving commanders the extra firepower they believe necessary to confront an insurgency that is taking a mounting toll on the U.S.-led coalition.

The decision, announced by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after first being reported Wednesday, breaks a promise to soldiers who were assured when they arrived in Iraq that they would stay no more than one year. . . .

The United States has a total of about 137,000 troops in Iraq now, Rumsfeld said. That number was supposed to have dipped to 115,000 by May, but Rumsfeld said Gen. John Abizaid, the overall commander of the Iraq war, decided he needs to keep the force level at about 135,000 troops.



Reuters, November 6, 2003:

General Peter Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon would be announcing "a very specific laydown" on Thursday.

Pace also told the House of Representatives Armed Services committee that the Pentagon plans to reduce U.S. troop strength in Iraq to about 100,000 by May 2003 as new units are rotated in.

He said the reduction from four to three divisions would be accommodated by an increase in the size of Iraqi security forces from about 115,000 to some 171,000.



For good measure: Joe Lieberman, June 22, 2006, running for re-election:

I personally hope, as I am sure all members of the Senate do, and I believe, that we will be able to withdraw a significant number of our men and women in uniform from Iraq by the end of this year and even more by next year. . .

General Abizaid and General Casey have said that it is their hope to begin withdrawing more troops by the end of 2006, and even more next year.



Joe Lieberman, Democratic primary debate with Ned Lamont, July 7, 2006:

The situation in Iraq is a lot better, different than it was a year ago. . . .So I am confident that the situation is improving enough on the ground that by the end of this year, we will begin to draw down significant numbers of American troops, and by the end of the next year more than half of the troops who are there now will be home.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. "The light at the end of the tunnel" "Victory is within our grasp" "We must be patient" etc, etc.

All popular refrains of the same song.

LBJ used similar tactics when trying to convince the people that Vietnam was "winnable".

[Toots]

2. Must boost the number way up first, then a cut in half is where they wanted in the first place.

It is very typical politics. Ask for the moon so when the cuts are made you still come out with what you truly want. The thing that screwed everything up in Bush*'s case is he did that and no cuts were ever made and in fact GOP Congress added to them..Began with Presidential Papers Act and First tax Cuts early in 2001..Hasen't really stopped yet. Is finally getting down to where some cuts are being introduced but still over and above what they really want..

[BurtWorm]

3. kick