do the math

A stuttering President Bush tonight proposed bringing home some 5,700 troops from Iraq by this Christmas, and another four combat brigades (“at least 21,500 troops,” says MSNBC) by July (unless he decides not to, but I’ll leave that for another post).

Now, there are currently 169,000 US troops in Iraq. The Sen. John Warner autograph edition Christmas bonus of 5,700 troops plus 21,500 equals 27,200 troops. The current 169,000 minus 27,200 equals. . .

raise your hands. . .

that’s right, 141,800 troops!

Prior to the surge-scalation announced by Bush in January’s “new way forward,” there were 132,000 US troops in Iraq. So, even though this so-called reduction only represents the originally scheduled drawdown of forces because of mandated and desperately needed troop rotations, it still doesn’t get the number of troops in Iraq down to pre-surge levels.