The first efforts to decrease U.S. military efforts in Iraq have been set into motion.
U.S. military officials said Sunday that the number of troops in Iraq will be reduced by 12,000 in the next six months. The remaining troops will still account for more than 120,000.
Six years after the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, Obama plans to pull all combat troops out of Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, leaving 35,000 to 50,000 support and training troops as Washington shifts its military focus to Afghanistan, Reuter’s Tim Cock reported.
A U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. David Perkins told the AP that Iraq’s security has improved and violence is at its lowest level since the summer of 2003.
Yet the lives of many Iraqi and foreign troops continue to be lost. On the same day as the announcement, a suicide bomber killed 28 people at a Baghdad police academy.
Rhetoric that a Democratic administration doesn’t support troops is propaganda at best. Obama’s team is merely trying to be practical. American military efforts are better concentrated in areas of real threat, such as Afghanistan.
Still, the U.S. economy and military are being stretched too thin. Occupying forces in multiple territories is a drain on our country’s resources when we need to focus attention at home, especially during an economic recession that could lead to a depression.
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, a retired Navy admiral, told Congress on Feb. 12 that ‘the primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications.’
The possible threat of terrorist attacks was not included in other the top areas of concern, such as climate change and food, water and energy shortages.
While an end date can be set in Iraq, the end to an economic depression is indeterminable. The Daily Cougar hopes the U.S. military and the Obama administration continue to work together to sort out U.S. priorities.
