Democracy Has Prevailed.

November 23, 2005

Why Does the Pentagon Hate America? Don't They Remember 9/11?

Sure looks like they are telegraphing a withdrawl to the terrorists, no?

Isn't this the kind of thing that got Murtha called a coward?

From the Washington Post:

3 Brigades May Be Cut in Iraq Early in 2006
Some U.S. Troops Would Stay 'On Call' in Kuwait


By Bradley Graham and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 23, 2005; Page A01

Barring any major surprises in Iraq, the Pentagon tentatively plans to reduce the number of U.S. forces there early next year by as many as three combat brigades, from 18 now, but to keep at least one brigade "on call" in Kuwait in case more troops are needed quickly, several senior military officers said.

Pentagon authorities also have set a series of "decision points" during 2006 to consider further force cuts that, under a "moderately optimistic" scenario, would drop the total number of troops from more than 150,000 now to fewer than 100,000, including 10 combat brigades, by the end of the year, the officers said.

[snip]

Murtha, in his call for withdrawal last week, also suggested retaining a quick-reaction force in the region as well as Marines within a short sailing time away. Similarly, in an article published by the Center for American Progress last month, Lawrence J. Korb and Brian Katulis, two defense specialists, outlined a plan for redeploying some U.S. forces from Iraq to Kuwait and offshore in the Persian Gulf.

As John from AMERICAblog said about this,"The worst president ever just blinked."

1 comment:

fester said...

And if you actually read the article, it is a drawdown of one brigade from baseline, as currently the force in Iraq is at least one brigade above baseline of 17, so that is being withdrawn (-1), another one is going to Kuwait for surge capacity (-2) and finally one is staying in Kansas for at least a couple more months (-3), so realistically, the US is planning on deploying into the theatre 16 brigades as the baseline force next year, not the 17 brigades that is this year's baseline force.