42,500 US Troops Home By July!
The US is scheduled to withdraw one quarter of its troops from Iraq by July.
The media ignored this good news announced by General Petraeus on Sunday.
Displaced Shi’ite families return to their homes in Iskandariyah, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, January 28, 2008. About 99 displaced Shi’ite families returned to their homes in Iskandariyah with the help of the U.S. and Iraqi forces on Monday, local officials of the area said. Picture taken January 28, 2008. (REUTERS/Stringer)
Gen. David H. Petraeus announced on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” that troop reductions in Iraq are “on track” for this year. The US is scheduled to reduce 42,500 troops from Iraq by July due to the great success of the Bush Troop Surge.
This good news didn’t make any headlines at CNN.
Here’s Video.
MNF-Iraq reported:
Plans to withdraw four Army brigade combat teams and two Marine battalions by July are “on track” as the military seeks to draw down the number of troops in Iraq as quickly as ground conditions allow, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Jan. 27
Appearing on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer,” Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said the scheduled withdrawal will reduce the number of troops at the height of the surge by one quarter, or roughly 42,500. Further reductions after July will be based on the state of Iraq’s security, he added.
“The guidance that (Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates) in fact has given me — and the president and my chain of command, what all of them have said — is that reductions after July should be conditions-based,” he said.
The general said after the upcoming drawdown, Defense Department and military officials will need time to “let things settle a bit” before making further reduction assessments.
U.S. Army Capt. Neil Hollenbeck, center, commander of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, addresses a town hall meeting in Beijia village in Arab Jabour, south of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008. Seven days after Alpha Company arrived in the village, which had become an al-Qaida safe haven, residents have begun to return to their homes and nearly 150 men have volunteered to be Concerned Local Citizens. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
