Disagreeable
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Excerpts; my emphasis; link below.
"The Pentegon said Monday that U.S. forces could shrink fairly quickly after the election to what had been a baseline figure of 138,000 before an extra 22,000 troops were added to deal with heightened violence leading up to the parliamentary vote. The U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, then may recommend to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld a timetable for going below 138,000, the Pentagon said."
"Maj. Gen. Jim Dutton, commanding officer of the British-led multinational division based in Basra, said he believes such a withdrawal could begin this spring.
"We wish to get out of this country as soon as possible when we have put in place the conditions that allow the Iraqis to continue to develop. If that is in the middle of '06 in those two provinces, then that would be good," he said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television on Monday night.
"Given what I know today and what I think is going to happen, six months is not an unrealistic timescale to start talking about withdrawal of troops from some areas," he said."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051213/ap_on_re_eu/britain_iraq
"The Pentegon said Monday that U.S. forces could shrink fairly quickly after the election to what had been a baseline figure of 138,000 before an extra 22,000 troops were added to deal with heightened violence leading up to the parliamentary vote. The U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, then may recommend to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld a timetable for going below 138,000, the Pentagon said."
"Maj. Gen. Jim Dutton, commanding officer of the British-led multinational division based in Basra, said he believes such a withdrawal could begin this spring.
"We wish to get out of this country as soon as possible when we have put in place the conditions that allow the Iraqis to continue to develop. If that is in the middle of '06 in those two provinces, then that would be good," he said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television on Monday night.
"Given what I know today and what I think is going to happen, six months is not an unrealistic timescale to start talking about withdrawal of troops from some areas," he said."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051213/ap_on_re_eu/britain_iraq