Petraeus Announces Expected Troop Withdrawals
The longer General Petraeus stays in command the more I’m convinced he is definitely the right man to be leading the war effort. Not only have many gains been made on the ground in securing Iraq, but he is also very savvy with engaging the media. A perfect example is this bombshell he just dropped:
The top American commander in Iraq said Wednesday he was preparing recommendations on troop cuts before he returns to Washington next month for a report to Congress, and believes the U.S. footprint in Iraq will have to be “a good bit smaller” by next summer.
But he cautioned against a quick or significant U.S. withdrawal that could surrender “the gains we have fought so hard to achieve.”
If you are closely following things in Iraq you would already know that this is nothing new, but most people are not. The US military has to begin troop reductions from Iraq by next summer because the “surge” was created by extending tours for units in Iraq and deploying units earlier that were scheduled to go to Iraq. A lot of people don’t realize that no new units were sent to Iraq to create the “surge”, just a change in timings for the units already there or going.
The Army recently announced that no tours to Iraq would exceed 15 months thus that means US troops would have to start being withdrawn by next spring. However, General Petraeus’ is using this fact to his advantage by dropping quotes in the media about how the troop reductions are actually related to gains on the ground and he is simultaneously taking away talking points from the Democrats praying for the defeat of US forces in Iraq by announcing troop reductions. He has also announced this when Congress is in recess thus ensuring he has maximum media attention and the Democrats probably cannot respond.
It seems out of all the Generals who have been running things in Iraq, General Petraeus understands that engaging the media is just as important as making gains on the ground. By doing this he slowly preparing the battlefield in Washington next month to his favor. You can almost feel the conventional wisdom about the war slowly changing and it is all because of the leadership from the top by General Petraeus and the servicemembers executing his new counterinsurgency strategy.
Suprise, Suprise, Suprise! Just in time for the Presidential election.
You are correct though, they are plowing the ground for the September report. Except as I understand it even with troop "reductions" -which are simply returning forces to pre-surge levels, we have to do something by spring because the deployment schedule can no longer support it.
When do the Iraqis get to actually make political progress?
The new talking point is political progress because critics cannot go after the military any more due to the success on the ground from the surge. The fact is that there is political progress but the media is missing it.
The improvement on the ground actually began last July with the improved security situation in Anbar with the creation of the Awakening movement. However, the major media outlets did not pick up on this until months later even though imbedded journalists had been reporting extensively about it.
It is the same thing with political progress. There is plenty of grassroots political progress happening right now but the major media is missing it. Michael Yon has been reporting heavily on local political progress and how there is no major media outlets with him covering it:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/three-marks-o…
So I expect that the major media won't pick up on this until at least another six months when the evidence becomes to overwhelming. That would time perfectly with the reduction in troops from the surge.