General Pace: Draw Down Troops
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Iraq, Military
This is sure to ruffle some feathers:
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to advise President Bush to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq next year by almost half, potentially creating a rift with top White House officials and other military commanders over the course of the war.Administration and military officials say Marine Gen. Peter Pace is likely to convey concerns by the Joint Chiefs that keeping well in excess of 100,000 troops in Iraq through 2008 will severely strain the military. This assessment could collide with one being prepared by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, calling for the U.S. to maintain higher troop levels for 2008 and beyond.
Petraeus is expected to support a White House view that the absence of widespread political progress in Iraq requires several more months of the U.S. troop buildup before force levels are decreased to their pre-buildup numbers sometime next year.
Of course Bush won’t listen, but this is Pace planting a flag in the ground saying our presence in Iraq is hurting our chances for response to new threats…
According to administration and military officials, the Joint Chiefs believe it is of crucial strategic importance to reduce the size of the U.S. force in Iraq in order to bolster the military’s ability to respond to other threats, a view that is shared by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
Will Bush ignore his Defense Secretary too?
More as it develops…
UPDATE:
Al Jazeera is reporting that Pace hasn’t made up his mind yet…
The most senior military officer in the US has denied a report saying he has decided to recommend a reduction in US troops serving in Iraq.Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was expected to recommend to George Bush that troops be reduced to less than 100,000 next year, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
“The story is wrong. It is speculative. I have not made nor decided on any recommendation yet,” Pace said in a statement.
This doesn’t mean he won’t recommend what the LA Times reported, but it’s an interesting development.
I wonder who leaked the info about Pace in the first place?
This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 and is filed under Iraq, Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
If Bush chooses to not to listen to this gay hating, muddy-boot soldier knuckle dragger it wouldn’t surprise me. First he offed the lifetime, dedicated and most of all, qualified senior military that didn’t “fall in line.” And now he won’t even listen to these robot soldiers he put in to “do as they are told.”
It’s pretty clear, anything that contradicts staying in Iraq is going to meet utter resistance from Bush. He’s one of these people that breaks his mother China cabinet and spends the next 25 years trying to hide his little inner secret from being found out. He spends hours and hours gluing it back together as if it was never broke in the first place, but the fact is, the cabinet has been destroyed.
Bush rather spend more energy trying to cover up his mistakes than just coming clean and dealing with his demons. He’s got to be right no matter what. Even when being right as an option is long past gone. This is a case of moral bankruptcy. This man doesn’t have the facilities or tools to be a real leader, or a man for that matter. He’s the closest thing to a walking joke when it comes to presidents. I think we could elect a 12 year old with more moral uprightness and sense of responsibility than this buffoon.
August 24th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
You are an absolute mental clusterfuck if ever there was one — a piss-ant half-wit with nothing better to do but sit around in your mom’s basement and insult the military. Please, do this country a favor and leave as soon as possible.
August 24th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
“You are an absolute mental clusterfuck if ever there was one — a piss-ant half-wit with nothing better to do but sit around in your mom’s basement and insult the military. Please, do this country a favor and leave as soon as possible.”
Oh realllllly? Who’s the real insult to this nation’s fighting men and women? Who has showed utter disregard and disrespect for military advice and fired a four-star general because he was telling the truth, or did you forget that Eric Shinseki, a four-star was fired for speaking out, that it would take “something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers” to secure the country of Iraq. Now who’s the real fucking insult to this countries military?
As for Mr. Peter Pace, an obvious yes-man if I ever friggin’ saw one. His comments about homosexuals. I’ll ask you a question, how many goddamn U.S. soldiers have fought and died for this country and were gay? I’m sure that their sacrifice is made all the less and meaningless by Mr. Peter Paces comments, not! Gay men have fought and died for this country whether you like it or not asshole!
As for me leaving this country? Not gonna happen. And it is called America, not facist fucken Italy you sorry sack of shit nazi. You can talk all the shit you want, I really don’t care what some punk ass wannabe patriot has got to say. You might take yourself up on the offer to hitch a ride out of this country. I’d guess Russia or some other totalitarian country would be glad to take you.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
DosPeros, if only we could all be patriots like you. Advocating the destruction of all the colored people and stepping the goose step, ah yes! the good ol’ Red White and Blue with a swastika. This is America little buddy, not Amerika.
August 25th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
speaking of our inability to deal with “other” fronts: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26heroin.html?hp
Isn’t it interesting that we are spending so much time in Iraq when it is Afghanistan that harbored and trained the terrorists that attacked America? But then again…is it really a surprise? Does Afghanistan have the oil reserves that Iraq does?
Opium production has hit an all-time high in Afghanistan. Where are the proceeds of that opium going? To our enemies, that’s where. And we are spending hundreds of billions in Iraq to what end? Iraq to the entire Islamic world serves as a great injustice, the longer we stay the more America is seen as an occupier, an aggressor.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan and Afghanistan the terrorists are winning public opinion among their own people which can be directly attributed to the real or perceived injustices of the Iraq War.
DosPeros, you want to talk about insulting our military? Sending our troops in to Iraq under false pretenses is the biggest possible insult there is. How many U.S. men and women have lost their lives for incompetent planning of this war? This war in Iraq is counterintuitive. America should be putting resources into Afghanistan, not Iraq.
But our Oily president has no intention of truly dealing with Afghanistan, he plans to stick with the original game plan, privatizing Iraqi oil fields to American corporations. And another added benefit is that the weapons industry like Boeing, Lockheed, GE, Haliburton get filthy rich every day we stay there. When Bush says we can’t surrender in Iraq what he really means is: there’s big profit for my constituents every day we stay in Iraq.