black…MYstory

Just ahead of the White House-written report that will be given by General David Petraeus in which it is speculated that will ask for more time for the “surge” in Iraq, a couple of interesting developments have happened. In the last couple of days, a call for a draw-down of U.S. troops have come from some unlikely sources.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter Pace, is expected to advise the White House to draw down more than 62,000 U.S. troops now stationed in Iraq. This would put him at direct odds with the Petraeus request that would actually call for a sustained troop presence in Iraq for 2008 and beyond.

Pace’s rationale is simple: our military is too strained to support these troop levels.

Pace’s recommendation seems to represent the consensus of the Joint Chiefs.

If that isn’t enough, Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia, is calling for Bush to begin drawing down troops this December. According to Warner, the Iraqi government is not meeting its stated goals and they need to be pushed to do so. Warner says that he wants to send a message to the Iraqi government that the U.S. is not there in some “open-ended” commitment. He also asked that President Bush set a time table for withdrawal. (Hmmm…isn’t it funny when Democrats called for the same thing, they were cutting a running?)

Finally, Army Secretary Pete Geren has said that he sees “no possibility” of extending soldiers’ 15-month Iraq tours. If this is the case, more troops would need to be coming home soon, thus limiting the number of available troops in Iraq. So, this would indicate the need for the draw-down of troops unless…draft, anyone?

The American people have been long sick of this war and Bush trying to do a spin job to keep it going only hurts the soldiers in the field who risk life and limb everyday, hurts our economy at home and damages his party’s chances in ‘08. I think we might be seeing a perfect storm of issues converging to finally start wrapping up this Iraq fisaco.

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