WASHINGTON — President Bush boasts that he’s bringing 8,000 troops home from Iraq by February. What he doesn’t say is he’ll leave office with more troops there than before last year’s big military buildup and few options for shoring up the force in increasingly violent Afghanistan.
The bottom line of Bush’s troop announcement on Tuesday is that the U.S. military force in Iraq largely will stay intact for the rest of the year when he’ll pass command of the wars to his successor. Bush is sending more troops to Afghanistan, but Democrats say it’s not enough.
Bush chose the measured drawdown in Iraq because he didn’t want to jeopardize recent security gains. He sent in 30,000 extra troops last year to buy time for political and economic progress in Iraq, which has been slow to materialize. Military commanders tell Bush there appears to be a “degree of durability” to the security gains, but progress in Iraq remains fragile and reversible.
In a speech at the National Defense University on Tuesday, Bush emphasized the positive:
“While the enemy in Iraq is dangerous, we have seized the offensive. Iraqi forces are becoming increasingly capable of leading and winning the fight. As a result, we’ve been able to carry out a policy of return on success — reducing American combat forces in Iraq as conditions on the ground continue to improve.”
Bush advisers said U.S. troop withdrawals were possible because of clear, undeniable progress on the security front, paving the way for other nations to pull out their troops, too. They said the 30-member coalition with forces in Iraq would shrink to a handful in the next 90 days. They’re leaving it to the Iraqi government to announce who’s staying and who’s going.
The U.S. troop reductions, however, were smaller than expected. In short, the war is requiring more troops in Iraq than people thought would be needed at this juncture. When you do the math, the 138,000 troops who will remain in Iraq as the Bush presidency comes to a close is higher than the 135,000 who were there before the troop buildup.
Too many wild cards remain: Al-Qaida in Iraq is down but not out. Iran is not playing the active role it once did in Iraq, but that could be temporary. Provincial elections are expected by year’s end, but no date has been set and Iraqi sects have a ways to go before they reach power-sharing agreement.
Bush spent more than half his speech on Afghanistan. The troop increase in Afghanistan will be very small. Two Marine units are leaving in November, to be replaced by the Marine battalion Bush mentioned in his speech — meaning the number of combat troops in Afghanistan would actually fall this year.
The arrival of the Army brigade in Afghanistan in January will mean a net increase of combat troops, but of only 1,000 to 1,200 troops, plus however many support troops are sent along with it.
The Bush administration doesn’t see the situation in Afghanistan as spiraling out of control, said a senior administration official who briefed White House reporters. He said if the situation in Afghanistan becomes more critical, the U.S. could return to 15-month deployments, mobilize more reserve units, shift military assets from one theater to another or increase nonmilitary support.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
