About 8,000 'surge' troops will remain in Iraq, Pentagon says

[Swede]

The transfer of responsibility for detention operations has not progressed as rapidly as we would like to the Iraqis, so there's a need to have that force sustained, as well," Ham said.

President Bush ordered nearly 30,000 additional troops to Iraq in January 2007 to pacify Baghdad and its surrounding provinces. When the last of the five Army combat brigades and two Marine battalions ordered in as part of that campaign leave Iraq by July, 140,000 troops will remain -- about 8,000 more than the 132,000 U.S. troops stationed there before the surge, Ham told reporters at the Pentagon.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/25/iraq.troops.remain/index.html?iref=werecommend

[TexasObserver]

1. Bush's response to the 2006 elections was to have an escalation and troop build up.

Now he's putting the lie to the name SURGE. We have always known it was a lie, and it's "success" is a lie. He's helping the same Sunnis who were insurgents for years, and calling it a success. He acted in response to demands by Saudi Arabia and Jordan, who saw Iraq slipping away to the Shia.

[Swede]

2. And he gets to walk away into the sunset.

Probably into some kind of no-work consultant job that pays big $$$$$.

[TexasObserver]

3. He's got Paraguay, in case the Hague calls.

The man is entirely delusional about what he has done.