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Petraeus

Counting Troops in Iraq

by John Feffer, Col. Daniel Smith (Ret.) | Jul 17, 2007

This past week, both the House and the Senate debated and voted on legislation affecting the deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq. In the Senate, the issue was the length of time soldiers and Marines would have at home between deployments to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. In the House, Ike Skelton (D-MO) introduced a bill requiring the secretary of defense to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within 120 days of the legislation becoming law and complete the drawdown to a “limited presence” – a heretofore unknown parameter – by April 1, 2008.

Iraq Surge Is a Slippery Slope

by Emily Schwartz Greco, Col. Daniel Smith (Ret.) | May 26, 2007

Remember January 10, 2007? That was the night that President Bush told the American public, in effect, to stop complaining about the fighting in Iraq. As the “decider-in-chief,” he was “surging” an additional 21,500 troops – five army combat brigades and four Marine regimental combat teams – to cut the high daily death totals and provide stability and security in Baghdad and al-Anbar province.