Bush quick to claim victory for slow withdrawal

The Guardian:


US president says his 'surge' strategy has succeeded, but there are other reasons for the drop in sectarian violence.

The surge that began early last year has led to a big drop in sectarian violence, although Bob Woodward in his new book cites other contributing factors: the decision by the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to rein in his Mahdi army militias; the so-called Anbar Awakening, in which Sunni fighters allied themselves with US forces to fight against al-Qaida, and an assassination campaign against extremist leaders.

But a reduction of 8,000 troops over the next few months will still leave US troop levels in Iraq at about 140,000, posing a big problem for Bush's successor.

In fact, the pace of the reduction in combat troops is both slower and smaller than had been anticipated. US commanders see little alternative to keeping a big troop presence in Iraq for now because the situation remains fragile, although Baghdad has made it clear it would like all US combat forces to leave by 2011 in current talks on a security pact.

Some strategists, notably Fred Kagan — one of the advocates of the surge — have argued that this is no time to ease military pressure on al-Qaida and the Shia militias. In a recent article Kagan wrote: "Now is exactly the time to continue the pressure to keep them from regaining their equilibrium. It need not, and probably will not, require large numbers of American casualties to keep this pressure on. But it will require a considerable number of American troops through 2009."

He went on to argue that the US needed to maintain current levels through the Iraqi provincial elections later this year, and that consideration of force reductions makes sense only after those elections and until the incoming commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, has assessed the new situation.

Rest of the article @ link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/09/iraq.usa1?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

I was whole heartedly against the surge for exactly the reason obama mentioned on the liely show. It was giving bush another blank check.

However with the reduction of violence brought on by all factors including the surge I think we need to ugh stay the course for a bit and give the country time to breathe some and perhaps solidify the government some. We have regional elections coming soon i think we need to see what happens in those before making any withdrawal decisions.

I want our guys out as much as the next guy but I also want the iraqi's left with as decent a shot at stability as possible.

Only 4,155 US soldiers lost, $576 billion spent. And we're working hard to make Iraq as good as it was before we invaded under false pretenses. Yay, we've won!