The game of bait-and-switch goes on, without anyone seeming to notice. Following the Congressional testimony of his commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, Bush has reportedly embraced his recommendation that the US withdraw 30,000 troops—by next summer. Bizarrely, this is being portrayed as a de-escalation—even though it will leave 130,000 troops in Iraq. In other words, around the same as before the "surge." Also around the same as in May 2003 when Bush declared an end to "major combat operations" [2]—at which time troop levels were ostensibly slated to be reduced by 100,000 over the next four months. (They now stand at 168,000 [3].)
The testimony of US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker was redolent of the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel" that the LBJ administration kept seeing in Vietnam. "A secure, stable, democratic Iraq at peace with its neighbors is, in my view, attainable," he said. "As we look ahead, we must acknowledge that 2006 was a bad year in Iraq. The country came close to unraveling politically, economically, and in security terms. 2007 has brought some improvements." Note disingenuous use of the past tense, as if Iraq were not still in the process of "unraveling." (The Scotsman [4], Sept. 12; Salt Lake Tribune [5], Sept. 10)
See our last posts on Iraq [6] and the politics of withdrawal/escalation [3].
