February 2, 2007

21,500 Troops for Iraq or 43,000; Which is It?

According to recent new reports, the president wants to send, 21,500 new US combat troops to Iraq This is  part of the  'surge' strategy  that's going to bring a measure of peace and tranquility to Iraq. 

What is left out of Mr Bush's calculus is exactly how many new support troops will be necessary if the US puts 21,500 new combat soldiers into Iraq.   According to a new study put out by the Congressional Budget Office, at a minimum it's probably going to take at least one support person for every combat soldier sent.  This works out to at least 43,000 new troops  which will bring, if deployed,  the current US military presence in Iraq to about 200,000. 

Which is scary.  Two-hundred thousand is about 40% of the highest number of troops the US deployed during the Vietnam War.   At the rate things are going, the US will reach the 500,000 mark in Iraq in about another 5 years, maybe sooner, unless the Congress acts.    

It's way past time  for the Congress to stop this slow-motion train wreck and demand either a cap on the number of soldiers deployed in Iraq, or a withdrawal of US forces  from the more volatile urban areas.  As it stands now, US forces are doing nothing except getting themselves RPG'd, machine-gunned, sniped and EID'd, as they go through various Iraqi neighborhoods in the major cities playing constable because the local Iraqis won't.    

Posted  1:00 PM  PST

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