Looks like the White House has started preparing to withdraw troops from Iraq in 2006.
White House says troop reductions should be coming
By Adam Entous, Reuters | November 29, 2005
EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) - The White House said Tuesday that Iraqi forces should be sufficiently trained to permit a reduction in U.S. troops in Iraq next year as President Bush worked to convince an increasingly wary American public that his strategy can succeed.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush would focus in a speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on efforts to train Iraqi security forces to take over for the 155,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq.
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The Pentagon plans to shrink the American presence -- now at 155,000 -- to about 138,000 after the Dec. 15 Iraqi elections and is considering dropping to about 100,000 around mid-2006 if conditions allow, defense officials said last week.
I have this feeling that the White House is gearing up to bring down troop levels fairly drastically in time for the 2006 elections.