Bush’s Big Iraq Announcement Hides Terrible News
The headlines from George Bushâ��s speech yesterday focused on shorter deployments for Army troops… but look closer. [Army Times]
This change, which would �cut Army combat tours in Iraq from 15 months to 12 months,� obscures the real news: We�re mired in a conflict with no clear goals and no end in sight.
First, a little history:
In 2007, the White House �went on a full scale assault� against a bill from Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) that would have mandated that U.S. Army soldiers� time deployed be equal to their time at home (12 months home for every 12 months in Iraq). [Think Progress] [Progress Report]
Only now, after he�s �pushed troops to the extreme,� and facing �intense pressure from service commanders,� Bush is admitting that troops are feeling the strain of the war, announcing �a reduction of Army combat tours from 15 months to 12 months.� [Washington Post]
But the new deployment lengths only affects soldiers deployed after August 1st of this year.
Bobby Muller of Veterans for America says that nearly �half of the Army�s active-duty frontline units are currently deployed for 15 months, and that Bush�s decision leaves them out.� [Washington Post]
The real news today is that Bush has embraced the plan to freeze any further drawdown after some of the surge troops have come home, leaving 140,000 troops in Iraq through the end of 2008.
140,000? That�s 10,000 more than before the beginning of the surge. [ABC]
And still, after �spending nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars, after more than 4,000 lost American lives alongside hundreds of thousands of Iraqis,� there�s no good response to the question: �How does this end?� [American Progress]
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