republicans angling for a 'symbolic reduction in troops -- 'a gesture' [View All]

. . . just to clear the headlines and make it look like they're ending it in time for the presidential election cycle. Cover for recalcitrant republicans.


Petraeus To Recommend Troop Drawdown In Spring

(CBS) WASHINGTON The top U.S. commander in Iraq says he wants to continue the troop buildup there until next spring, amid divisions in the Bush administration over whether to bring some forces home months earlier than that.

When he delivers a much-anticipated report to Congress on Monday, Army Gen. David Petraeus said he expects to advise that there could be a gradual reduction of forces beginning in the spring because of some of the successes achieved so far with the escalation ordered by President Bush in January.

"Based on the progress our forces are achieving, I expect to be able to recommend that some of our forces will be redeployed without replacement," Petraeus said in an e-mail to the Boston Globe and published in its Friday editions.

"The bottom line is that ... I do not envision that the U.S. would need to send more troops," he said, adding that commanders are planning for how remaining troops will be deployed around Iraq "as the surge of forces inevitably runs its course."

The Associated Press reported earlier this week that administration officials said Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker recommended to Bush that he stand by his current war strategy.

But they also said that Bush was considering a symbolic reduction in troops by year's end. Sen. John Warner, R.-Va., a former Armed Services Committee chairman, Navy secretary and key player on military issues on Capitol Hill, also has suggested that some troops be brought home by Christmas as a gesture.

Bush himself suggested that modest troop cuts may be possible if military successes continue, but he gave no timeline or specific numbers. Speaking to reporters Wednesday during his attendance at the APEC summit in Australia, he restated his view that decisions about troop levels should be based on recommendations from military commanders.

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