Many people, including on this board, insisted that there would be this dramatic draw down of forces from Iraq prior to the election. Bush and his neo-con cabal would declare "victory" in the war.
I said it wouldn't happen. I knew it wouldn't happen.
I was right.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061024/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_061024185442BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two weeks before U.S. midterm elections, American officials unveiled a timeline Tuesday for Iraq's Shiite-led government to take specific steps to calm the world's most dangerous capital and said
more U.S. troops might be needed to quell the bloodshed. U.S. officials previously said they were satisfied with troop levels and had expected to make significant reductions by year's end. But a surge in sectarian killings, which welled up this past summer, forced them to reconsider.
At a rare joint news conference with the American ambassador, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, said additional U.S. troops could come from inside or outside Iraq to "improve basic services for the population of Baghdad."
"Now, do we need more troops to do that? Maybe. And, as I've said all along, if we do, I will ask for the troops I need, both coalition and Iraqis," Casey said. There are currently 144,000 U.S. forces in Iraq.
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