Removing Combat Brigades from Iraq

November 6, 2008

Comments

Barack Obama has been President Elect for just two days and already we’re reducing the number of combat brigades in Iraq:

Gen. David H. Petraeus has decided to reduce the number of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from 15 to 14 about six weeks earlier than planned, as a result of dramatically lower violence there, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

“The hope is they can come home before Christmas,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said of the decision.

The plan accelerates the withdrawal from Iraq of a 101st Airborne Division brigade of 3,500 to 4,000 troops that will not be replaced. Another brigade from the 10th Mountain Division that was scheduled to go to Iraq in its place will instead deploy to Afghanistan, as announced earlier this fall.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has stated that further increases in U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan — where American commanders say they need three more brigades and thousands of support forces to combat a growing insurgency — will be contingent upon further withdrawals from Iraq next year.

Underpinning the decision to speed the brigade’s return is a continuing drop in attacks and troop casualties in Iraq, officials said. October had fewer than 1,000 “security incidents” nationwide in Iraq, the lowest monthly number since January 2004, Morrell said.

I’ve said for a long time that regardless of who was president events would determine our course of action in Iraq because that’s what our national interests require. Right now that’s moving in the direction of reducing our footprint in Iraq. How far and how fast that will proceed depends mostly on how stable and peaceful Iraq is and I continue to believe that will be true whether President Bush or President Obama is sitting in the Oval Office.

I only wish that more thought were being given to our strategic objectives in Afghanistan. Does increasing the number of combat troops in Afghanistan further those objectives? Or does it just provide the space for our presumed allies to reduce the size of their commitments? Does that further our strategic objectives?

7 responses to “Removing Combat Brigades from Iraq”

Drew

November 6, 2008 at 12:04 pm

I have always thought that Bush’s critics were making a false assertion by claiming the Iraq War diverted necessary resources from Afghanistan.

I have never seen a reliable account of targets or initiatives gone wanting in Afghanistan, and have always assumed that the reality is that we are fully resourced.

Is there evidence to the contrary?
Dave Schuler

November 6, 2008 at 12:29 pm

Actually, there is, Drew. Air strikes are being overused in Afghanistan because we don’t have the troops to conduct land operations at the scale necessary. That in turn results in more civilian casualties which undermines our strategic objectives in Afghanistan.

The problem I have with that line of thinking is that I can’t imagine the American people getting behind the size of the army we’d need in Afghanistan to accomplish our tactical objectives with substantially reduced air strikes and I can’t imagine the Afghans accepting so large a force in their country peaceably.
Drew

November 6, 2008 at 2:11 pm

Thanks. An air strike crutch is indeed a ham-fisted approach.

Do you have a specific citation?
Dave Schuler

November 6, 2008 at 2:25 pm

Sure. How about a quote from Brig. Gen. Mike Tucker?
Drew

November 6, 2008 at 5:16 pm

Thanks for the link. Isn’t it a shame that our media can’t report these issues in a level headed manner? “Make sure you report 7 as 70”.

Our opposition certainly knows how to pull the levers.

So what is your view – do you believe that Obama will make a proper re-allocation of resources? I am not confident in any way.
Dave Schuler

November 6, 2008 at 5:39 pm

I think that President Obama is likely to be as good as his word and increase the commitment of combat brigades to Afghanistan (as President McCain would have).

However, I’m a dissenter. I think that we need to change our strategic objectives in Afghanistan away from apprehension to containment. Basically, we need to raise Al Qaeda’s cost of operations to unmanageable levels.
Drew

November 7, 2008 at 9:49 am

Timing is everything. Just this AM I read that Karzai has called for (for Obama to) an end to the air strikes and their attendant civilian casualties.