What you fail to mention is even with the small troop reduction Petraeus is talking about, we WILL NOT be below the original number of troops sent to Iraq. This information was not volunteered by Petraeus, it was extracted from him by a question from Rep Ike Skelton, Chairman of today's proceedings. FOX will undoubtedly lead with this headline...and also not tell the entire story.
>>>last winter's buildup in U.S. troops had met its military objectives "in large measure.<<<
And those military objectives were what? Correct me if I'm adrift here but wasn't the idea to calm things down enough where the current government would have a chance to establish political order which everyone agree is the ONLY long term solution? That obviously didn't happen so what objectives were met "in large measure"? Relative peace in Anbar? Doesn't seem like a good proxy since the Shiite/Sunni mix is not representative of the rest of Iraq and much of the progress was the result of bribery and horse trading.
"Unlike in other areas, the Marines had an opportunity to cut deals with the sheikhs here in part because of the relative homogeneity of the Sunni-dominated province. In more mixed areas, the "Anbar model" may not work."
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