U.S. Starts Drawing Plans to Cut Its Troops in Iraq

[hightime]

WASHINGTON, July 7 - With an interim Iraqi government now in place, the Pentagon is beginning long-range planning on how to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq, senior military officials said Wednesday.

Pentagon officials have previously said that about 135,000 troops would stay in Iraq through 2005. But the military's Joint Staff is working on detailed plans to reduce that number by 2006, on the assumption that Iraqi Army and other security forces will be ready to take on more responsibility by then, officials said.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, the top operations officer for the Joint Staff, Lt. Gen. Norton A. Schwartz of the Air Force, signaled that this thinking was well under way. When asked about planning for the size of an American force that could move into Iraq for yearlong assignments beginning in early 2006, he declined to give specific figures but said, "The bottom line is, it is different than what we anticipate" for 2005. He added, "There is a significant planning effort that will wrap up later this summer.''

A senior defense official said later that the Joint Staff was developing options for a smaller force in Iraq, proposals that would be consistent with the goal of Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American commander in the Middle East, to reduce the American military presence in Iraq over time. Some officials said those options revolved around 100,000 troops, or fewer, but troop levels could increase if security in Iraq worsened

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/politics/08mili.html?ei=5062&en=7ee75ed2d65d25b8&ex=1089864000&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=

[Blue_Roses]

1. Just in time for the elections

right :eyes:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. The NeoCons may be telling us the truth on this one...

...because the plan is to move those troops into Iran.