A story was reported this week with very little fanfare from the media.  President Bush is planning on following recommendations to withdraw around 8000 troops from Iraq by January of 2009.  He would also send a small group of Marines to Afghanistan in November; No, not to add troops but to replace the ones leaving.
 
Folks, military commanders in Afghanistan are asking for ‘more’ troops, not less, not the same -- more.  President Bush and John McCain are failing their jobs.  Bush and McCain have both promised to provide everything to the generals on the ground that they ask for – they’ve failed in that mission.

What isn’t noticed as much during this news report are the words, “at least one Marine battalion will leave (Iraq) and not be replaced, as well as a few thousand support forces”.   Don’t you wonder how many ‘thousands’ that number is?  I do.

Two weeks ago General Petraeus wanted to maintain current levels in Iraq – about 146,000, including 15 combat brigades and thousands of support forces through June.

There’s no telling exactly how many troops we still have in Iraq because the news reports never match up.  We’re never told the truth.  But if it’s true that in January of 2007, before the ‘surge’, we had 130,000 total troops there in Iraq, and if it’s true that there’s been an 80 percent drop in violence – why then do we continue to have, at the very least, 16,000 more troops there than what we had before the ‘surge’?  

If the ‘surge’ worked and we have ‘victory’ why aren’t the Iraqi soldiers taking charge?  Why isn’t the Iraqi government solving its problems politically?  Last but not least, why aren’t our troops heading home by now in great masses?

That is the most important question to ask Senator John McCain.  He and his surrogates kept talking about having ‘victory’ in Iraq during their GOP convention this past week. 

Victory means war is over; Troops go home.  It doesn’t mean troops stay – in greater forces than what were there before the so-called victory.

As a side note; I predicted that Bush would be giving an announcement just in time for Election Day about troop withdraw, to give John McCain something to 'brag' about.  8000 troops is a lot of troops and I'm sure each one is estatic about leaving; but 146,000 are still there folks.  Never, Never forget that.


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