In what looks like the beginning of a long goodbye, Italy announced it will pull out more than 1,000 troops from Iraq next month, according to
AP:
Italy will pull 1,100 of its troops from Iraq in June, the new government said Friday, giving its first specific numbers about the planned withdrawal.
"In June we will reduce our troops from 2,700 to 1,600," Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said during an evening television show.
His announcement came hours after he met with Premier Romano Prodi to map Italy's exit strategy from the U.S.-led coalition.
Interesting phrasing there: At least someone has an "exit strategy" - and it's not defined as departing Iraq, but as exiting the "U.S.-led coalition."
Contrast this with the two major dead-enders who met yesterday, saying they'll stick with it to the everlasting tragic end:
Despite an assertion by the new Iraqi prime minister that Iraq may be able to manage its own security by the end of 2007, neither Bush nor Blair gave any indication of a time frame for the drawdown of military forces. Bush called reports that the Pentagon hopes to scale back the U.S. deployment from 135,000 troops to about 100,000 by year's end "speculation."
Rumsfeld yesterday also gave short shrift to the silly old idea of the dreaded timetable, according to CNN:
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused Thursday to set a date to begin troop withdrawals from Iraq and said he trusted the American people to do "the right thing" in upcoming congressional elections.
Thanks, Mr. Rumsfeld. We believe the American people will do precisely the right thing in elections, since they are polling 11 points in favor of Democrats taking back control of Congress. It seems they just can't wait to say, "Ciao," to the Republican culture of endless military deaths, unaccountability and corruption.