President Ray Guy

8,000 Troops to Leave Iraq Next Year

President Bush has accepted the recommendation of his senior civilian and military advisers to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq by 8,000 in the early months of next year.
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Neither the Marine battalion nor the Army brigade will be replaced, leaving the American combat force in Iraq at 14 brigades. After other support and logistics units are withdrawn under the new orders, the American troop levels in Iraq would drop to about 138,000 by March, still several thousand more than were there in January 2007, when Mr. Bush announced the “surge” that brought the total over 160,000.

And with that Bush just washed his hands of all decision making in Iraq. He's made all the final troop decisions and we are locked in with his plan until the middle of next year. He has successfully held out long enough that the next guy has to take responsibility for his mistake. Expertly played sir, exquisite punting of your responsibilities. Methuselah or the Muslim will have to do the heavy lifting and you can sit in Crawford with a "Who me?" look. Top level Presidenting. Our military presence is still giant and unsustainable, violence levels are still bad by normal standards, all the Iraqi political conflicts are unresolved, there are still unregulated militias operating with impunity, and civilian bombings are a daily occurrence. But that's some other chumps responsibility.

Put your feet up on the big fuckin' desk. You earned it champ.