Over 160,000 troops in Iraq in January 2006 Bush's "surge"

[GreenTea]

of 21,500 more troops still won't bring the total of troops in Iraq even up to a level to where it once was. Who in the fuck does Bush think he's fooling, pretending this is some new untried tactic, obviously to buy more time get, more funding, to continue the corporate war for profit.

This new tactic will allow Bush to purposely make a mess of things in the region, and by bombing Iran it will prolong this very profitable war for a much longer time...this is truly the bottom line, the amazing huge profits being made via our tax dollars & all that unmetered Iraqi oil. BushCo & the neocons, the corporations, the "military industrial complex" will never leave Iraq voluntarily....They will just continue to create more chaos to keep the profits rolling in, as more will killed or maimed fighting for these same greedy bastards who will be sending more kids to fight their war for profit.


January 22, 2007

"To shatter expectations and demonstrate that the United States is still very much in the game, President Bush announced Jan. 10 a strategy to “surge” U.S. troops in Iraq. The increase will total 21,500 troops, with a peak of 17,500 in Baghdad and another 4,000 in Anbar province. Ultimately, this looks unlikely even to bring the total level of U.S. forces to their peak strength of 160,000 — the number of troops that were in Iraq in November and December 2005, in the buildup to the general elections Dec. 15. It is likely to be accompanied by a shift in tactics to focus more specifically on counterinsurgency operations."

January 20, 2007

Adding 21,500 U.S. troops to the 135,000 already in Iraq would push the total to almost 157,000. That's near the post-invasion peak of 160,000 in January 2005, a surge meant to stabilize Baghdad for Iraq's historic first elections. It had a temporary calming effect, but the new government's failure to get moving politically gave the insurgency an opening that led to a three-month spike in violence. Critics of the Bush plan fear this will happen again.

November 5 2006

The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue.
In its "Desert Crossing" games, 70 military, diplomatic and intelligence officials assumed the high troop levels would be needed to keep order, seal borders and take care of other security needs.
The documents came to light Saturday through a Freedom of Information Act request by the George Washington University's National Security Archive, an independent research institute and library.
"The conventional wisdom is the U.S. mistake in Iraq was not enough troops," said Thomas Blanton, the archive's director. "But the Desert Crossing war game in 1999 suggests we would have ended up with a failed state even with 400,000 troops on the ground."
There are currently about 144,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, down from a peak of about 160,000 in January.

June 23, 2006

There are about 127,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. That is down from a peak of about 160,000 in winter 2005-06, but close to the typical level over the past three years of about 135,000. The widespread expectation inside the U.S. Army is that by the end of this year, the U.S. presence will be cut to about 100,000.

[gratuitous]

1. Who does Bush think he's fooling?

Well, he's pretty much got the popular media bamboozled, though that goes without saying for the most part. You would think a pertinent little fact like the historic troop levels in Iraq would somehow creep into the narrative, wouldn't you? But such a recitation would expose Bush's cynical "augmentation" ploy for the political game it is, and mentioning the emperor's nakedness has been deemed strictly off limits by the Serious Guardians of the Public Discourse.

[LaPera]

2. Unfortunately, Bush seems to be fooling not only the media,

but congress as well, because funding will go through simply because Rove knows the Dem's must let Bush's "new plan" and inevitable failure - Or else it'll seem as though the Dems are abandoning the troops and they are not patriotic. While more of our troops will die. Rove & Co. has put the Dem's in a very tough situation, and even so the Dem's will be blamed, the republicans are still, unbelievably calling the shots. It's all politics for image and profit with them, to force more power and profits for a few.