Troop Surge Successful Casualties Reduced Since June Increase
The surge in Iraq has been bearing fruit, and appears to be very successful. Since the start of the June 2007 surge, violence and deaths in Iraq have fallen sixty percent. “Every single trend we examine; attacks, civilian deaths, our casualties, they are all down sixty percent,” said General David H. Petraeus. Army General Petraeus is Commander of Iraq Multi-National Forces.
“As we enter the New Year, we want to clearly build on our momentum that we have working closely with forces from Iraq,” said General Petraeus.
Iraqi Forces have also had an impressive build up and surge of their own, over one hundred thousand new Iraqi Soldiers and Policemen are on duty now than were a year ago. With the increased and sustained success comes the inevitable question of when U.S. Forces can begin to withdraw.
“We are aiming to reduce the strains on our forces on the ground wherever we can,” remarked Petraeus. “We have a prepared plan that will lead us through the end of the summer, through July and it will reduce without replacing about twenty five percent of our ground combat forces,” stated General Petraeus.
General Petraeus is upbeat but cautious about any other troop drawdowns or reductions, and was careful to remind everyone that Al-Qaida is still a threat in significant areas. “Al-Qaida is a very lethal, and still very dangerous group, it will do its best to come back,” said Petraeus.
The amount of Iraqi items in the world nightly news has dropped, and the General was quick to point out that is a good thing. “No news is often the best news,” said General Petraeus.
