General Petraeus Speaks About Scaling Down Surge
The overall plans to slowly begin to withdraw troops from Iraq are on track. The plans are to withdraw two Marine Corps Battalions and Four different Army Brigade Combat Teams from Iraq by next July, and these plans are progressing well.
Army General David H. Petraeus spoke to reporters January 27th, and stated that the plans for the withdrawal are progressing on schedule. The withdrawal will reduce cut back the troops in Iraq by about forty two thousand five hundred people. Any reductions scheduled after July will be based on how well the state of security in the nation of Iraq is at that time.
“Secretary Gates has told me, as has the President, the entire chain of command I answer to, that any troop reductions after July 2008 will be based on current conditions at that time,†stated General Petraeus. Following the scheduled reduction this July, officials in the military and Defense Department will take a hard look at the situation, and let things settle. The focus according to General Petraeus will be to remove forces as conditions allow but not to do anything to stop the progress made by the troop surge.
Force reductions would be an action that would save resources and also money to the war on terror. The U.S. Army is taking a hard look at the amount of time between deployments, also known as dwell time, for soldiers. There are also plans to try to reduce the time of deployment periods for soldiers from fifteen months to twelve months.
