While the Main Stream Media Spins…

Gee, with the MSM getting their panties in a bunch trying to besmirch Sarah Palin’s good name, they seem to be ignoring more important issues; like Bush pulling 8,000 U.S. Troops out of Iraq, or Bush sending a “surge” of 4,500 troops into Afghanistan…  Of course, the Obamessiah will probably spin this as HIS idea…

Bush to cut Iraq troops strength, boost forces for Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AFP) — President George W. Bush announced Tuesday that he would pull just 8,000 US troops from Iraq in the coming months, while sending 4,500 soldiers to Afghanistan.

The decision means Bush’s successor will take office in January with the US military presence in Iraq largely unchanged at about 140,000 troops — a bigger deployment than two years ago despite the deep unpopularity of the war.

Bush, speaking to the National Defense University here, said progress in having Iraqis take over security responsibility — which he characterized as “unimaginable” just two years ago — had made a troop drawdown possible.

He said around 3,400 support unit troops would return home in coming months, a Marine battallion by November and an army brigade by February — for a total of about 8,000 soldiers.

“If the progress in Iraq continues to hold, General (David) Petraeus and our military leaders believe additional reductions will be possible in the first half of 2009,” Bush said, referring to the top US commander there.

The US president said a Marines battallion, would be deployed to Afghanistan in November, to be followed by an army combat unit in January.

“Afghanistan’s success is critical to the security of America and our partners in the free world. And for all the good work we have done in that country, it is clear we must do even more,” he said.

“As we take these new steps in Afghanistan, we must also help the government of Pakistan defeat Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters hiding in remote border regions of that country,” he said.

Bush said he called Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, and “pledged the full support of America’s government as Pakistan takes the fight to the terrorists and extremists in the border regions.”

“Defeating these terrorist and extremists is in Pakistan’s interest because they pose a mortal threat to Pakistan’s future as a free and democratic nation,” he said.

His message came amid media reports of multiple strikes inside Pakistan recently by US or international troops based in Afghanistan, which accuses its neighbor of abetting or at least turning a blind eye to cross-border violence.

Without commenting directly on a US strike in Afghanistan that Kabul says killed 90 civilians, Bush declared that “the history of warfare” shows such losses are inevitable but that the United States “mourns every innocent life lost.”

Bush defended his decision to leave the US military presence in Iraq largely unchanged for the remainder of his term as necessary because “the progress in Iraq is still fragile and reversible.”

The unpopular president has steadfastly resisted calls for a withdrawal timetable in the five and a half years since the March 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

His speech came eight weeks before the November 4 US election in which Bush’s preferred successor, Senator John McCain, has pinned his hopes on his early and fervent support of the “surge.”

McCain’s rival, Democrat Barack Obama, has pledged to begin troop withdrawals immediately if elected, and foresees most combat troops being out of Iraq by late 2010.

Recent polls show two out of three Americans oppose the war and want to see a quick withdrawal, but many view the “surge” as a success story, and Bush has repeatedly said that US politics will not shape his decision.

Iraqi Prime Mininster Nuri al-Maliki has said that Washington and Baghdad have agreed that foreign forces will be gone by 2011 as part of talks on an agreement to govern the US troop presence in Iraq after its UN mandate lapses December 31. The White House denies that the deal is done.

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