Is He Serious?

Boy, my brother has put a lot of pressure on me. Not only does he expect me to explain the significance of the "drawdown" of U.S. soldiers, I'm supposed to be humorous? Well, you can read what Rumsfeld says about troop reductions, but for those who tend to need a nap after reading I'll see if I can break it down for you.

To call it a troop reduction is a little misleading. For starters, the number of troops in Iraq has steadily increased from around 137,000 to 160,000 in anticipation of an escalation of violence leading up to next week's elections. If things go well with the elections (which is an enormous if at this point), that number could drop back to around 137,000. In addition to that drawdown, several units originally planned for Iraqi deployment are being redirected to Germany and Kuwait as fast response teams should they be needed. This move seems too sensible and politically savvy for the Bush administration, but I think it will play well for them. They need to reduce the number of troops in Iraq, but they know that withdrawal is not an option right now. So, they pull some battalions out and station them somewhere close, and then they can tout lower number of troops specifically in Iraq with the option of immediate redeployment if the [poo] hits the fan. Therefore, it feels like a withdrawal of sorts, and will probably be spun into one by the Bush administration, but we're clearly still as entrenched as we've always been.

It's going to be interesting these next couple months as Andrew gets into his mission, while Iraq either lifts itself up or tears itself down around its newfound "democracy."