Pulling The Troops Out Of Iraq

Contributed by: filbert Sunday, November 25 2007 @ 03:53 PM CST

OK, Democrats, we pro-victory types give in. You win. We’ll start pulling troops out.

Overall U.S. troop levels in Iraq will fall by about 5,000 when a combat brigade completes its pullout from the country’s volatile Diyala province next month, U.S. military officials said on Saturday.

The 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division is the first brigade not be replaced by fresh troops from the United States since the U.S. commander in Iraq General David Petraeus announced plans to cut forces by some 20,000 by July 2008 as violence ebbs.
. . .
The 3rd Brigade was not part of President George W. Bush’s “surge” of 30,000 troops in the first half of 2007. But its departure marks the first big reversal of a troop build-up ordered to pull Iraq back from the brink of all-out civil war.

“The redeployment without replacement reflects overall improved security within Iraq,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference.