Troops to be lowered in Iraq

[angelwing]

(Admins if this gets too political, please delete)


Just seen this in red print on Drudge http://www.drudgereport.com -no story yet

Bush admin developing plans for for reducing combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year, NEW YORK TIMES planning to report on Saturday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE REPORT... MORE.. could 'lower troop levels to roughly 100,000 by the midst of the 2008 presidential election,' paper will claim... Sec. of Defense Gates and Condoleezza Rice proponents of the plan.... Developing...

[x-y-no]

From what I've been reading (always maddeningly vaguely sourced to "senior administration officials" and such) is that there's a major policy division between Gates and Rice on one side and the Vice President's office on the other.

It seems to me that the VP doesn't have as much influence as he did when Rumsfeld was SecDef.

We'll see. I hope they manage to chart a successful course.

[Brent]

Well it's about time...

[JonathanBelles]

Not a good idea. When we come home, they will follow or get worse. Remember it is a civil war in Iraq not a war against the US.

[Stephanie]

Perhaps it is a behind the door compromise to the war funding bill.

They need to start to thinking about ending this thing. Iraq needs to suck it up and start deciding how they want their country to be run. I was never in favor of just pulling the troops out, but there has to be a time table and Iraq has to assume more responsibility.

It is about time if it is true.

[x-y-no]

Iraq needs to suck it up and start deciding how they want their country to be run.

That's the bottom line right there. The Sunni tribes in Anbar cracking down on al Qaeda is a somewhat hopeful sign that al Qaeda won't have a refuge there if we withdraw. Now we need the Iraqi parliament to get its act together (and to cancel their 2 month vacation.)

[Ivanhater]

Iraq needs to suck it up and start deciding how they want their country to be run.

That's the bottom line right there. The Sunni tribes in Anbar cracking down on al Qaeda is a somewhat hopeful sign that al Qaeda won't have a refuge there if we withdraw. Now we need the Iraqi parliament to get its act together (and to cancel their 2 month vacation.)

Exactly, I would love to see Iraq start taking a bigger role and the U.S being more of a support system for the Iraqi army...either way you fall in the political scope, I'm sure we can all agree that we hope to start seeing success so we can bring our brave men and women home...

[Stephanie]

By all means we should still continue to provide some kind of support system, but we can't keeping fighting their fight.