Didn't take long for Petraeus to start playing a numbers gain with the troop reduction in Iraq. Just because he said 30,000, doesn't actually mean the number will be 30,000. So what plan is Bush actually accepting tonight? All week we've been subjected to another Bush campaign of spin and deception. Bringing the troop level back to pre-escalation levels isn't really a reduction of forces anyway, but now it's not clear that's even happening.
I want to ask about the reduction in troops that you've talked about. I want to first make sure that I understand the numbers that you're talking about. It's been said that what you've described is a reduction in 30,000 troops. Is that, in fact, what you –
[Petraeus] What I've described is a reduction of five brigade combat teams, Army brigade combat teams, the Marine Expeditionary Unit, which actually is coming out this month without replacement, and two Marine battalions. Now, we want to take out other –
That's a little less than –
[Petraeus] Well, we have to do the math, candidly. We've got – I have not yet said how many thousands of troops. So when people have said 30,000, they're not quite accurate. It might be 30,000 — it might be quite a bit less.
[Petraeus] Well, we've got to determine what it can be. The mission so far, in a sense, was to figure out how to bring these down while sustaining the gains that our troopers and Iraqi troopers have achieved, and also, then, to figure out the larger picture of where else can you reduce forces — which is something we want to do anyway.
They have to do the math, all right. Bush is going to give a BIG SPEECH to the nation tonight accepting the Petraeus plan when Petraeus hasn't done the math on his plan yet.
