Drawdown Dance Begins

The reported drawdown of troops after completion of the surge ma be delayed as a story I was just reading states:
FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday endorsed, for the first time, the idea of pausing the drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq this summer.


"A brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense," Gates told reporters after meeting with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Petraeus has indicated in recent weeks that he wants a "period of evaluation" this summer to assess the impact on Iraq security of reducing the U.S. military presence from 20 brigades to 15 brigades. Of that five-brigade reduction, only one has departed thus far. The last of the five is to be gone by the end of July.

So with todays words the "drawdown" dance will begin between the President and his Critics/Opponents in Congress, and our troops will be caught in the middle as usual!! Definitely not a "good" news day for anyone involved!!


drawdown