The Daily Background
| Raw: US to begin troop withdrawl this year
by Arlen Parsa
Raw Story has a front page exclusive on this:
Tony Blair and George Bush will announce that they are to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq at a summit in Washington as early as this week, RAW STORY has learned.
The process has already been carefully choreographed in an attempt to bolster the popularity of both Bush and Blair who have suffered domestically for their handling of the war.
The scope of the phased withdrawal, which will see the 133,000 US force levels cut to around 100,000 by the end of the year and British numbers almost halved, has already been agreed, one senior defence source said.
The actual announcement will come in response to a statement from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that his government believes coalition forces are no longer needed in a number of provinces.
Earlier today, I noted that Secretary of State Rice hinted that the possibility of withdrawing troops from Iraq was not particularly promising this year. The obvious impulse that I have is that the White House is now willing to make Iraq a sacrificial lamb for Republicans midterm prospects, which many tie directly to Iraq. We’ll see how this develops and the type of spin that’s put on it. I’ll have more on this in the coming days, obviously.
