Bush can say goodbye to 'Servio's' troops after the January election in Iraq (maybe).
I've seen two stories in the news about this in the past 24 hours, but I haven't read anything about it here. Pardon me if this is a repeat.
According to Antonio Martino, Italy's Defense Minister, Italy might begin to draw down it's troops from their current level of about 3000 after the scheduled Iraqi elections in January.
One story here
"Italy could begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq next year, Defence Minister Antonio Martino was quoted as saying by newspapers on Sunday.
"An immediate withdrawal will be inexplicable. But a first step could be a reduction in our contingent during 2005," the Corriere de la Sera quotes Martino as saying on Saturday on the sidelines of an Italian television programme.
The defence minister is the first senior Italian official to suggest a rough time-scale on disengaging Rome's 3,000-strong contingent. He said any withdrawal or reduction in the Italian contingent was conditional on democracy returning to Iraq in the form of " fully legitimate government" following January elections."
Interestingly, both versions of this story that I have seen contain a reference to Bush's imaginary, fully trained and fully equipped 100,000 man Iraqi security force. I expect that to be a common theme for the retreating governments as they all (including us) abandon Iraq to it's own questionable future.
"He pointed out that there were over 100,000 Iraqi police and soldiers who were "trained, equipped and prepared to meet the terrorist threat," and as locals they were actually more qualified to do it effectively." ( From here )
So, let's see.
Blair has reduced Britains troop levels in Iraq by more than 80%
Kwasnieswski is ready to pull out.
And now, 'Servio'.
That just about does it for Bush's "Three Amigos", doesn't it?