So much for “conditions.” Under questioning from Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Gen. Petraeus conceded that his timetable for ending the surge by July 2008 is due to the five extra active-duty Brigade Combat Teams coming to the end of their scheduled deployments and the lack of available units to keep U.S. troop strength at 162,000.
Remember this when President Bush on Thursday unveils his (read: Petraeus’) “drawdown” plan — and, for that matter, any time a politician says that the only “responsible” reduction of forces is one that’s “conditions-based.”
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The ‘plan’ Kirk and Lipinski are shopping around isn’t a plan. It’s a bunch of suggestions without enforcement and sets a goal that has to be met because the US will be out of forces to maintain 160,000 in country. The ‘plan’ is keeping as many troops as are available and when they try and sell it as a compromise they are stupid or lying.
[…] “Freedom’s Watch” is spending millions of dollars to promote false analogies between 9/11 and Iraq in a purely partisan effort to keep the few barely wavering Republicans squarely behind the president’s failed Iraq policies. In Illinois, they’re spending almost one million dollars to try and corral Rep. Mark Kirk who is only mouthing the words in the first place. […]