President Bush, whose surge of more than 20,000 troops into Iraq significantly reduced violence in key regions, announced Thursday that he would begin to reduce forces to pre-surge levels if conditions permit.
“Those of us who believe success in Iraq is essential to our security and those who believe we should bring our troops home have been at odds,” Bush planned to say in a speech to the nation from the Oval Office. “Now, because of the measure of success we are seeing in Iraq, we can begin seeing troops come home.”
Bush decided to accept the recommendations of Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
In remarks prepared for his eighth prime-time address on the Iraq war, Bush said: “Tonight I want to speak to members of the United States Congress. I ask you to join me in supporting the recommendations General Petraeus has made and the troop levels he has asked for.”
Petraeus told Bush that the success of the surge would allow for 2,200 Marines to return home this month without being replaced and an Army brigade of 3,500 troops to come home by Christmas. Unless conditions deteriorate, the drawdown would continue through next summer, with the overall force being ultimately reduced from 20 brigades to 15.
That means troop levels in Iraq will begin to drop from the current level of 160,000 to 140,000 or fewer over the next 10 months. Bush aides cautioned the drawdown could be reversed at any time if violence increases.
“The president is very clear that we want to adapt to conditions on the ground,” a senior administration official said. “Not the calendar.”
That is at odds with congressional Democrats, who had long hoped to use this month’s progress report by Petraeus and Crocker as a way to end the war once and for all. Instead, they are grumbling that Bush has succeeded in perpetuating pre-surge troop levels into the final months of his presidency.
Democrats were not helped by a full-page advertisement in The New York Times on Monday that savaged Petraeus as “General Betray Us” and accused him of “cooking the books” in Iraq. The ad was purchased by the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org, which has become increasingly influential in the Democratic Party. The ad put Democrats on the defensive as they tried to dodge Republican demands that they denounce the ad.
