The Bush administration is developing what are described as concepts for reducing American combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year, according to senior administration officials in the midst of the internal debate.
It is the first indication that growing political pressure is forcing the White House to turn its attention to what happens after the current troop increase runs its course.
The concepts call for a reduction in forces that could lower troop levels by the midst of the 2008 presidential election to roughly 100,000, from about 146,000, the latest available figure, which the military reported on May 1. They would also greatly scale back the mission that President Bush set for the American military when he ordered it in January to win back control of Baghdad and Anbar Province.
The mission would instead focus on the training of Iraqi troops and fighting Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, while removing Americans from many of the counterinsurgency efforts inside Baghdad.
Oh, you can comfort yourself with the idea that the president will start drawing down troops while John Boehner cries in the halls of Congress about abandoning those left there and John McCain insists that we still have to win in Vietnam. You can delude yourself that it was your courageous actions this week that pushed him towards withdrawal. But you'll be wrong on both counts. Because the American people won't see it that way. They will see George W. Bush drawing down troops and the Republican Party painted as the Party of Peace.
And you, my erstwhile representatives in Washington, will have no one to blame but yourselves.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire