"Bush Aide: Troop Reduction May Come in '06"

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States may be ready to reduce troops in Iraq next year if Iraqis continue making progress at the current rate, President Bush's national security adviser said Sunday.

Stephen Hadley appeared on a round of Sunday talk shows to follow up on President Bush's speech on Iraq from the U.S. Naval Academy last week. Hadley echoed Bush's statement that decisions about troop withdrawals would be made when U.S. commanders there felt Iraqis were ready to govern and protect themselves without U.S. help, but said that could come as early as 2006.

"We think that if trends continue and we continue to make the progress and the Iraqis continue to make the progress we're making, we'll be in a position sometime next year for us to - for the commanders on the ground to make their assessments," Hadley said on ABC's "This Week.""And it may be at that point they will come to the president and say, we want to make some adjustments."

Hadley said the deaths in Iraq, now above 2,100, have been very difficult for the president. Still, he said Bush expects insurgent attacks will increase in the next couple of weeks before Iraq's Dec. 15 elections.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20051204/D8E9LO7O5.html

Jaysus...the Repukes are repeat offenders, they make the same moves over and over again...and as such one can now read them like a book.