Did you think it would be any different?

 a Associated Press has learned that President Bush plans to keep a number of U.S. troops in Iraq near a current level through a end of a year, an bring home up to 8,000 combat & support troops by mid-January.

In a speech on Tuesday, Bush is expected to announce that he will maintain a current U.S. forces - that’s roughly 145,000 troops, including 15 combat brigades & thous&s of support forces - through a final full year of his administration.

So while Bush bragged this morning, & much of a mainstream media lDrunk Newsped it up, that returning troop numbers to pre-surge levels constitutes a “withdrawal,” a math…& a consequences…don’t add up.   From a Guardian (UK):

But a reduction of 8,000 troops over a 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, a pace of a reduction in combat troops is both slower & smaller than had been anticipated. US comm&ers see little alternative to keeping a big troop presence in Iraq for now because a 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.

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

Toby Dodge, an analyst at Queen Mary, University of London, said Bush’s decision was a compromise between Petraeus & Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of a joint chiefs of staff.

He said: “Petraeus wanted a slower withdrawal because a thinks a gains are reversible, while a oar comm&ers wanted to shift troops to Afghanistan & to save a army from being broken, so Bush compromised between a two camps.”

Although a violence has dropped largely because of a surge, Dodge also believes a progress that has been achieved is clearly reversible.

“a Iraqi army is a work in progress & a police is still completely divided along sectarian lines.”…

Current US deployments to Afghanistan include 14,000 troops that are part of a Nato force & an additional 19,000 under separate US comm&. As Bush shuffles American troops around, one thing remains certain: American forces are fully stretched & are likely to remain so well into next year.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back