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Iraq Pullout.

Comments

  • #2
    tribulus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,635 ✭✭✭tribulus


    Just watching his speech there on the news. From the report I gathered there are currently approximately 140,000 US soldiers in Iraq, which will be reduced to 35,000-50,000 by late 2010. 17,000 extra are to be sent to Afghanistan.

    He also plans to increase military pay, increase services for counselling but decrease the defence budget and a couple of other changes.

    It will be interesting to see how it all works out, though I imagine the withdrawal of such a large number of troops will save a staggering amount of money that can be used elsewhere.


  • #3
    Manic Moran
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,648 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manic Moran


    Local-womanizer wrote: »
    Long overdue imo.

    Seems staggeringly similar to the Republican plan set into place before the election, doesn't it? You'll note that various household-name Democrats aren't overly pleased about it.

    http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/27/iraq.dems/index.html
    WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top Democrats have expressed concern over President Obama's plan to draw down nearly two-thirds of U.S. forces in Iraq by August 2010, while some key Republicans are offering praise.

    <snip>

    Pelosi on Wednesday told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow: "I don't know what the justification is for 50,000, a presence of 50,000 troops in Iraq. ... I do think that there's a need for some. I don't know that all of them have to be in [the] country."

    <snip>

    Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-California, co-founder of the Out of Iraq House Caucus, was critical of the plan.

    "I am deeply troubled by the suggestion that a force of 50,000 troops could remain in Iraq beyond this time frame," she said in a statement Friday. "Call such a troop level what you will, but such a large number can only be viewed by the Iraqi public as an enduring occupation force. This is unacceptable."

    Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said that while he supports Obama's "step in the right direction," the new troop plan does not "go far enough."

    <snip>

    And top Senate Democrats echoed some of their House colleagues' skepticism.

    "That's a little higher number than I expected," Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Thursday.

    The third-ranking Senate Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, said, "It has to be done responsibly, we all agree. But 50,000 is more than I would have thought."
    He also plans to increase military pay, increase services for counselling but decrease the defence budget

    Obviously I'm not too happy about the decrease in the defence budget. An under-equipped and undersized military is part of the reason we're still in this mess. The soldiers are already really rather motivated, but motivation will only go so far. The military equipment status is far better now than it was five years ago, but there is still a lot of catching up to do to repair or replace a lot of the equipment which is now worn out. They shouldn't be doing any cutting at all until those have been caught up, which will take a couple of years.

    NTM


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