Bush Cutting U.S. Troops Levels in Iraq

[Thom Little]

President Bush has authorized new cuts in U.S. combat troops in Iraq, below the 138,000 level that prevailed for most of this year, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday.

Addressing U.S. troops at this former insurgent stronghold, Rumsfeld did not reveal the exact size of the troop cut, but Pentagon officials have said it could be as much as 7,000 combat troops.

Two army brigades that had been scheduled for combat tours — one from Fort Riley, Kan., the other now in Kuwait — will no longer deploy to Iraq. That will reduce the number of combat brigades in Iraq from 17 to 15.

"The effect of these adjustments will reduce forces in Iraq by the spring of 2006 below the current high of 160,000 during the (Iraqi) election period to below the 138,000 baseline that had existed before the most recent elections," Rumsfeld said.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/rumsfeld;_ylt=AoN07cBmMgXMQbyAmTIb3aes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

[SHRED]

1. Of course

'06 is around the corner.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. He's aiding the terraists!

Bastard. I knew it.

[thefloyd]

3. SHOCKING

How political can one person be

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. Not to worry

The remaining troops can just be ordered to rotate back in for another year or two. No biggie at all.

[thefloyd]

5. Cut and Run

Cut and Run Cut and Run

[YvonneCa]

51. Who really "cut and run"???

John Kerry, Georgetown University, October 26, 2005 (2 weeks before Murtha):


Bush Administration: The Real Cut and Run Republicans

"Now after all these mistakes, the Administration accuses anyone who proposes a better course of wanting to cut and run. But we are in trouble today precisely because of a policy of cut and run. This administration made the wrong choice to cut and run from sound intelligence and good diplomacy; to cut and run from the best military advice; to cut and run from sensible war time planning; to cut and run from their responsibility to properly arm and protect our troops; to cut and run from history’s lessons about the Middle East; to cut and run from common sense.

And still today they cut and run from the truth."

If you want to watch the entire speech, go to C-Span's website, search by Kerry and Iraq. Stay for the Q & A...it's the best part.

:patriot:

[global1]

6. Watch For Gas Prices To Go Down As Well......n/t

[Skittles]

7. he will add them back after the 2006 elections

f***ing asshole

[tularetom]

8. The heat is getting too much for him

Now he's gonna "Cut-'n'-Run". He's backin down in the War on Terra. It wasn't gonna happen on his watch. Bwahahahaha, the vengeful arm of the repub party will go apeshit over this.

[buddysmellgood]

9. I will not give in to this defeatism. We must not cut troop levels and run

[grytpype]

10. Running for the exits already.

Just watch what happens in 2006. Bush will declare victory and yank the troops out before the midterm elections, no matter what the conditions are inside the country. Then he will blame the Democrats for what happens next.

[ny_liberal]

11. I question the timing of the announcement

why make the announcement now?

[shraby]

13. To take the heat off the wiretapping story.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rodeodance]

19. bushco will take credit for it.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

14. This must be sending the wrong message to the world?

Can we say "flippity-flop?"

[bluestateguy]

15. Oh, horseshit

This whole story reads like a regurgitation of a White House press release.

[caligirl]

16. I think this cut is just the added troop numbers for the elections/

these guys were never supposed to stay beyond that anyway. this is another bait and switch by the chimp.

[sandnsea]

18. It isn't even the full number

If we'd been unified in demanding the 20,000 come home, we could have set the next benchmark with another large number to come home. Now we're still going to be working on this 20,000.

[sandnsea]

17. 20,000 home for the holidays

This is why we should have gotten behind that, to force them to bring home the full number of troops that they sent in specifically for this election.

[YvonneCa]

46. bush following Kerry lead...

...I have my sign on my car...feels GREAT, now that 20,000 will come home after "successful elections in December".:patriot:

[sandnsea]

50. 20,000 ARE NOT coming home

Only 7,000 which is not nearly enough to be implementing the kind of drawdown Murtha or Kerry called for. If the entire Dem Party, DLC & Left included, had rallied behind the idea of significant drawdown after the election, they wouldn't be getting away with bamboozling the public with this paltry 7,000 and who knows when the rest will start coming home. Never is my guess.

[YvonneCa]

52. We're on the same side...

...sandnsea. Yesterday, the MSM reported 20,000 (sorry, I don't know who I was listening to on the TV...I was baking at the time.) They said another 7,000 or so, scheduled to be deployed, were being canceled. Today, they modified the numbers on the MSM, but...just watch...they'll get to the 20,000. I also wish the DNC, DLC and everyone else had pushed the media harder and supported Kerry and Murtha. Kerry and Murtha are still pushing this 'change of direction." And, I agree, it's too slow.:patriot:

[sandnsea]

53. I really hope so

I only heard the 7,000. Then I heard them say we'd be "down" to 100,000 next year. Which means continued war. I hope they're getting troops out of there and letting the Iraqis take over, I really do.

[YvonneCa]

54. I know. It's been really frustrating, lately...

...let's hope for PEACE...soon.:hug:

[LunaC]

58. The DLC would never agree to a drawdown

The DLC and PNAC share the same origin

Current PNAC members were proteges of Henry (*'Scoop”) Jackson and Daniel Patrick (“Pat”) Moynihan


“…look at the 1970s, when the neo-conservatives in the Democratic Party grouped themselves into the Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM). The CDM's two leading lights in Congress were the Democratic Senators Henry "Scoop" Jackson and Patrick Moynihan. The Cold Warrior and fanatically pro-Israel Jackson remains the model for the DLC crowd today. The DLC's former President, Sen. Joe Lieberman declares he is proud to be identified as a " 'Scoop' Jackson Democrat." It was these two Senators' offices that housed the Leo Straussian "Children of Satan" behind the no-exit Iraq War.

From Jackson's staff came:

* Paul Wolfowitz, now Deputy Secretary of Defense and a leading
Straussian chicken-hawk;

* Richard Perle (on Jackson's staff from 1969 until going into the Defense Department in 1981), and until his recent forced resignation, chairman of Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board. It is reported that Perle maintains Democratic Party membership to this day, out of fealty to Scoop. Perle later brought along Doug Feith, now Rumsfeld's Undersecretary for Policy, who has been a Perle "groupie" since the late 1970s, largely due to Feith's family background deep in the terrorist movement founded by Zionist fascist Vladimir Jabotinsky. In the 1980s, Feith financed Perle through the International Advisers Inc., a firm in which Feith was the only stockholder;

* Frank Gaffney, who heads the Center for Security Policy, a "private" neo-con group which cheerleads for imperial wars and brutally anti-Palestinian policies;

From Moynihan's office came:

* Elliott Abrams, an Iran/Contra convict who now tries to shape Administration Middle East policy from the National Security Council staff;

* Abram Shulsky, who heads the Office of Special Plans under Feith in the Pentagon, which concocted fraudulent intelligence estimates used by the Administration to justify the Iraq War;

* Gary Schmitt, the head of the empire-promoting Project for a New American Century and a close collaborator of Shulsky. Schmitt worked under Roy Godson of the National Strategy Information Center in the early 1980s. Anti-LaRouche operative Godson was active in the CDM in the 1970s, narrowly escaped prosecution in the Iran-Contra scandals of the 1980s, and now is a consultant to Feith and Shulsky's Office of Special Plans.


http://www.leftgatekeepers.com/articles/MissingLinkHowRightWingNeoConsCreatedDemocraticLeadershipCouncilByMicheleSteinberg.htm

I was pretty shocked to learn how the DLC and PNAC share the same heritage. Now we have a better understanding of Lieberman - he's from the Democratic branch of PNAC!

[Divine Discontent]

20. Rumsfeld, in Iraq, announces troop reduction (Rummy's announcement!)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10573155/
Deployment of 2 Army brigades canceled, further drawdowns likely in 2006


4:05 a.m. ET Dec. 23, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Just days after Iraq’s elections, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Friday announced the first of what is likely to be a series of U.S. combat troop drawdowns in Iraq in 2006.

Rumsfeld, addressing U.S. troops at this former insurgent stronghold, said President Bush has authorized new cuts below the 138,000 level that has prevailed for most of this year.

Rumsfeld did not reveal the exact size of the troop cut, but Pentagon officials have said it could be as much as 7,000 combat troops. The Pentagon has not announced a timetable for troop reductions, but indications are that the force could be cut significantly by the end of 2006.

<snip>




http://www.cafepress.com/dontmakemedoit
http://www.cafepress.com/shrubwear

[OneBlueSky]

21. to be replaced by increased bombing, no doubt . . . n/t

.

[thebigidea]

22. so to recap: ____ troops leaving by __________.

what the fuck was he announcing, again? Absolutely nothing?

[Divine Discontent]

23. LOL

you don't expect them to be exact about anything do you? Plus, they'll just change the rules of the game anyhow. Once the elections are over next year they'll either increase troops to quell the unrest in Iraq or invade Iran.

Rummy is so clueless.

[0007]

27. Rummy not clueless! He knows where the WMD's are....

..and he knows how to deal with the known unknowns.

[SoCalDem]

24. Won't matter.. They will just bring in more mercenaries

and rotate soldiers to Kuwait or Afghanistan..These will be treadmill soldiers..moving in and out of the area withour actually being "assigned"..

[Divine Discontent]

25. socaldem

you know your shi-ott! that sounds REALLY plausible. I wish you weren't right, but I'd bet a shiny penny you are right.

[SoCalDem]

26. What will really suck, is that the soldiers will probably be told

to NOT tell their family & friends where they are.. They will be told it's for security, but truth-be-told, it will be to disguise where they are..

I remember the "non-bombings of laos & Cambodia".. Officially we did not do it, but my friend's husband flew daily bombing missions over L & C..and he did not do it on his own..

To expect the military to tell the truth, is to believe in Santa Claus

[and-justice-for-all]

28. Really Dummy Rummy....

TO be honest, I dont have a problem with helping other countries out...But occupation is a NO NO tard-O and the cronie clan needs to realize they lost this one. 2100 people lost their lives to corperate America and to protect us from the wrong people when we need protection from this GOP of murderes, liars and double talking wack jobs...

I hope the assholes that voted for these pieces of shit got what they wanted, I bet you those people still think the Bushicans are doing a fantastic job...FOOLS!

[izzie]

29. Has he been reading the polls.

This group sure runs things on the polls.

[YvonneCa]

47. No, following Kerry's lead...

...as usual.:patriot:

[The Witch]

30. To offset the spying story/drive up poll numbers?

But who cares? Troops coming home = hurray!

[HuffleClaw]

39. yeah, but pretty transparent

and dare i say it? a FLIP-FLOP from what they've been saying.

[teryang]

31. They know politics will be discussed over the holidays

This is just damage control. These announcements are rubbish.

[sduncang]

32. More Fluff...

Like Chaney's recent visit to Iraq. Next we'll see Bush himself "pop" in.

[Saboburns]

33. Let me handle this one fellas.

Rummy you commie pinko leftist socialistic Surrender Monkey!?!

Cowards cut and run, Marines never do.

[grytpype]

34. Running for the exits already.

Just watch what happens in 2006. Bush will declare victory and yank the troops out before the midterm elections, no matter what the conditions are inside the country. Then he will blame the Democrats for what happens next.

[TheGunslinger]

35. It's the start of the GOP reframing of victory in Iraq.

And they start with pulling out only 1/3 of the extra troops added for the Dec. 15 elections? Damn, things must be a lot worse over there than we originally thought!

[tuvor]

36. Fool me, can't get fooled again!

I'll believe it when I see it.

[DemonFighterLives]

37. Funny, after swiftboating Murtha

The misadministration is settling on his idea.
I'm sure things are really great over there. Have they turned the electricity and water back on yet?
:argh:

[gratuitous]

40. Odd, isn't it?

For months and months, all I've heard from my teevee and my radio is that the Democrats don't have a plan, and they should just shut up, and the President's doing the right thing. But every time the Democrats propose something, announce a plan, and decline to just shut up, the GOP changes course, adopts the Democrats' suggestion (albeit in a half-assed fashion) and then . . .

My teevee and my radio say that the Democrats don't have a plan, and they should just shut up, and the President's doing the right thing.

[DemonFighterLives]

42. We must listen to the neocon media

nothing else seems to be coming out. Since the election thingy, the deaths and maiming have been in a blackout. Makes you wonder what is really going on over there?

[YvonneCa]

49. The Murtha and KERRY plan...

...watch Kerry's Georgetown speech at C-Span (search site by Kerry and Iraq) from October 26,2005 (two weeks before Murtha). Stay to hear the Q & A. at the end. Kerry's plan!!!:patriot:

[reformedrepub]

38. Just in time

for the 2006 campaign. Amazing isnt it. "We wont cut and run," unless its to help our congressional candidates get relected.

[webtrainer]

41. dude on Fox says . . .

for what it's worth (not much I'm sure . . . ) two combat brigades, reported numbers differ between the Iraqis (7,500) and the U.S. (5,000).

I thought that we were there for the long run and would not be leaving? Will the Fox-ista's cry about this cut 'n run policy? hehehe

[SillyGoose]

43. But I thought troop reductions would aid the enemy??

:sarcasm:

[cliss]

44. Troop reductions won't matter.

I know Bush thinks that he will help the elections in 2006. It's not going to help. People will see it for the "salesman con-job" that it is.

The vast majority of US troops will have to stay in Iraq, because we simply cannot take too many out. A total of 7,000 troops out of 160,000 is only 0.04%. That's a totally "feel-good" fictitious number, not enough to satisfy the U.S. public.

We will still be hemorrhaging borrowed money on this war. To the tune of $4.9 billion (at least) dollars per month. U.S. troops will continue to get killed by homemade bombs.

Bush will promote the hell out of this move, but it won't work. Come November 2006, we'll still be there. And it will sink the Republicans.

[YvonneCa]

48. It will if he does it right...

...watch Kerry's Georgetown speech on C-Span (October 26,2005). Stay for the Q & A. Go to their website, search by Kerry and Iraq: now, there's a PLAN!:patriot:

[madmark]

45. This feels like Vietnam in the seventies; we didn't finally get out

of there until 1975 though everybody knew we were going to be gone back in 1970. In the meantime our guys over there were placed in increasingly untenable situations and were getting killed. While the draw downs are good for the guys who get out; the guys still there get subjected to exponentially increased danger.

[Straight Shooter]

55. Doesn't this just make it all the more dangerous for the remaining troops?

I really want to know. Whether it's 7,000 or 20,000, isn't this signaling to the *cough* enemy that we're doing a retreat in defeat? Doesn't this give hope to the *cough* enemy that at last they're driving us out of there? Doesn't this make the *cough* enemy more determined to attack the remaining troops?

I guess bush is one of those people who thinks that taking a wee bit of the medicine is just as effective as swallowing the whole pill. Jeebers.

[TheGunslinger]

56. As predicted, it's the reframing by the GOP for "victory in Iraq"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2330246&mesg_id=2330246

[secretmouse]

57. F*cking Amazing...

A coupla weeks back standing down troops was cowardly and defeatist...now it's "brilliance" on the part of Rumsfeld???? I may very well choke to death on my own vomit, while these guys are still in power!! (Hey, how come we don't have a "puke" motie?)

[Clara T]

59. Rumsfeld Illustrates Troop Reduction Hand-Job Technique

Rumsfeld Illustrates Troop Reduction Hand-Job Technique



In the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad Dec. 23, 2005 Rumsfeld announced that as the product of a $22 billion contract with Halliburton, he has taken delivery of and mastered a new technique, using hypnotic gestures, which will delude Americans into believing that U.S. troop strength in Iraq is being reduced.
 
Although last fall there were 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and the number was increased to 160,000 for the December elections, Rumsfeld said he is confident "all kids of silly chumps will piss their pants with glee" over his promised to reduce troop strength by 7,000, leaving 153,000 U.S. troops there as the new year beings.
 
"Shit, we've done this a dozen times before, and every time the suckers fall for it," he said.
 
"Our best move is that bullshit about how we're not going to send additional troops I never planned to send anyway. Then we call it a reduction." (AP Photo/Wathiq Khuzaie, Pool)

http://www.militaryproject.org/article.asp?id=792

[goforit]

60. He'll cut it down, then he'll create another wag the dog,and then he'll

attack Iran and Syria combined.

Watch out folks! The real terrorist may be playing possum just to
look good.

[BenDavid]

61. Why is this such a huge story,

Hell the mediawhores were telling us 2 weeks ago there would be a draw down of troops in Iraq and several units that were scheduled to go were put on hold.....But, nooooooooooo our mediawhores have got to make it as though it is something HISTORIC that bushit is doing.....