Secretary Of Defense Announces Troop Withdrawal

This is Breaking News: Bush did the RIGHT thing!

Actually, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld announced that President Bush has authorized a "Re-Deployment of Troops", or something like that. Basically, they're taking 7,000 troops OUT of Iraq.

There are currently over 138,000 armed forces personnel in Iraq. The withdrawal will be the first of several planned withdrawals in the coming year. This also means they won't be calling up more troops, two Army brigades that were to be called up, will no longer be needed. According to a count by CNN, this would reduce the number of combat brigades from 17 to 15.

Secretary Rumsfeld said, "The effect of these adjustments will reduce forces in Iraq by the spring of 2006 below the current high of 160,000 during the election period to below the 138,000 baseline that had existed before the most recent elections."

This means that the 20,000 troops The Pentagon sent to Iraq for the election will be coming home.

It's about time. It looks like all the "Democratic whining", or whatever the Republicans like to call it, worked, although they probably won't admit it!

But the calls for troop withdrawal by Democrats and even some Republicans have worked. There is NO doubt that our party's calls for troop withdrawal had some effect on the Bush Administration. Bush's numbers are still real low, and the only reason they raised a few points was because gas prices went down. Undoubtedly, some people use gas prices as their only measure of how a President is doing.

I'd like to see them home, but why don't they send some of the ones who are on their first tour to Afghanistan? Afghanistan isn't exactly a paradise, in fact, it sounds like it's been getting worse over there. The Bush Administration kind of went in there, chased some of the bad guys away, and never talked of it again. I don't want Bush, or God forbid a Republican wins in 2008, to send troops back to Afghanistan. That's why I think a few thousand should go over there.

Or course, Bush won't do that, so bring them home. Don't re-deploy them to Germany, or something stupid like that. Bring them home, let them have at least a year here, maybe two, before you send them to one of our many bases around the world.

But I hope that during the November 2006 Congressional Elections, you and the rest of the American people won't forget that there are STILL 130,000+ troops over there. Don't be overshadowed by the fact that only 7,000 have made it home.

Let's hope this trend continues...

-Adam
oregondemocrat@hotmail.com