U.S. troops in Iraq
– coming or going?

Jan 2, 2006

Two weeks ago, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talked about 20,000 U.S. troops returning home after the Iraqi elections. Last week, he corrected himself, admitting that troops weren’t being recalled. It’s just that two brigades scheduled to be deployed would not be sent – although one of the brigades would be sent to Kuwait and might be sent to Iraq later – along with “a few” specialists from the other brigade. He spoke of reducing troop levels to below 138,000.

But the next day, General Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, added, “The enemy has a vote on this. If the enemy causes some kind of problems requiring more troops, we will do what we have done in the past and give the commanders on the ground what they need. And, in that case, you could see troop levels go up a little bit to handle that problem.”

Pace also gave the current troop levels as 160,000, saying they could drop below the 138,000 level that “prevailed most of this year” by March – that is, if they don’t go up!

A shill playing Three-Card Monty couldn’t have done it better!