CBS: Military Tells Bush It Has Only 9,000 Troops Available For ‘Surge’

[RedEarth]

CBS: Military Tells Bush It Has Only 9,000 Troops Available For ‘Surge’
A State Department official leaked word this week that President Bush is considering sending “no more than 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. troops” to Iraq. “Instead of a surge, it is a bump,” the official said.

This claim was bolstered last night by CBS’s David Martin, who reported that military commanders have told Bush they are prepared to execute a troop escalation of just 9,000 soldiers and Marines into Iraq, “with another 10,000 on alert in Kuwait and the U.S.”

The Washington Post reports today that “deep divisions remain between the White House on one side and the Joint Chiefs and congressional leaders on the other about whether a surge of up to 20,000 troops will turn around the deteriorating situation.” The Post also provides more context about an administration official’s recent claim that the escalation is “more of a political decision than a military one.“:

The U.S. military is increasingly resigned to the probability that Bush will deploy a relatively small number of additional troops — between one and five brigades — in part because he has few other dramatic options available to signal U.S. determination in Iraq, officials said. But the Joint Chiefs have not given up making the case that the potential dangers outweigh the benefits for several reasons, officials said.

Escalation backers have already begun distancing themselves from this plan. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said yesterday that not sending enough troops would be “worse than doing nothing.”



Watch it here.......

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/05/report-military-tells-bush-it-has-only-9000-troops-available-for-surge/

[TexasLawyer]

1. "You go to war with the military you have..."

I seem to recall someone saying that at some point.

[malaise]

22. Touche!

Remind Bushco!!

[Kikosexy2]

27. Oooh...

I feel a draft coming on...well it was very windy last night (in L.A.)....

[Rosemary2205]

47. IMHO a draft is the only answer

We start up the draft and the public would force Bush out of Iraq so fast our heads would spin.

[POAS]

2. 9000 troops?

Who the hell is going to stop the Cubans from invading Miami Beach?

[Atman]

17. Hell, there were 9000 kids who watched "High School Musical" last night

In Hartford! What the hell is 9000 troops? That'd barely fill a small arena. Is he fucking nuts (oops, sorry - rhetorical)? That is total insanity. The whole idea of a "surge" is to show a big presence, to show strength and overwhelming force. 9000 troops in a place the size of Baghdad? Might as well just TELL the Iraqis you sent 9000 troops, because at that number no one will be able to tell anyway.

.

[Scooter24]

42. LOL

Sorry for getting off topic, but did you go to that concert? I had to go with a friend and her little boy and it was umm... interesting.

[MemphisTiger]

30. Coast Guard

nm

[Junkdrawer]

3. But when she got there, the cupboard was bare....

:(

[rodeodance]

4. maybeJrwill do the surgeon the CHEAP Again!

[BOSSHOG]

5. How dare they.

Our great leader wants 20,000, so be it. It is so ordered. And why have the Admirals and Generals failed our great leader? So what if we can't defend attacks on our country because "we" have stretched our military so thin. It is the great leaders wishes. It is the conserative way. Just do it!

[musette_sf]

6. oh my goodness gracious!

looks like that Selective Service System testing that slipped into a Friday news dump a few weeks ago, might just have to be started a little bit early!

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2744716

if the Decider decides it, then it's decided.

[tblue]

7. Remember the chant: "HELL NO, WE WON'T GO!"? It's time.

[corkhead]

40. "we won't fight for Texaco" is how I remember it finished

not much has changed....

[enid602]

8. mini surge

In that case, how about a 'mini surge?' I should think that would be all bush is good for, even under the best circumstances.

[gkhouston]

10. I think that would be an urge? In this case, one best resisted. n/t

[gratuitous]

31. More of a demi-surge

I crack myself up.

Too bad this little tidbit hit the mainstream media; it will be harder to deny now that it's out of the province of the wonks and the blogs.

[BuyingThyme]

9. Why don't they have a Yanni concert instead.

[Poiuyt]

16. If they turned the volume up loud enough, it would drive all the insurgents

out of Iraq (as well as the innocent Iraqis however)

[BuyingThyme]

18. I was thinking Red Rocks.

No need to fly them over there.

[mzmolly]

11. That's more of a piddle than a surge no?

:P

Wow!

[Beetwasher]

12. Where Are Clone Troopers When You Need Them?

Quick! Someone get their hands on some of Jango Fett's DNA!

[0007]

13. From a surge to spurt

[jazzjunkysue]

56. George Bush's next job. Beautiful.

[Swede]

14. Good time for China to reclaim Taiwan.

Just sayin'.

[NewJeffCT]

37. well, with us recruiting foreigners for our military with the promise of citizenship

We can recruit all those extra males in China for our military.

[jahyarain]

43. thank you, i needed an excuse to post this on my DU journal...

yep. i'm sure everyone here (trolls excluded) know who's been funding our deficit ridden country's war on terror. and now, they see no reason to make us indebted to them even further. their funding of this mess helped ensure we wouldn't have the money (much less the military) to do anything as they became the sole world superpower. i'd like to send out a special "thank you" to all the pigs who supported the complete and utter destruction of America in the name of the security we have now completely lost. heckofajob! Ni hao, bitches...

By jahyarain

[NoAmericanTaliban]

15. Send the Bush twins along with Rush & O'Lielly

to boost the troop levels.

[Jacobin]

19. Can you imagine the sound of the little boots stomping around

the White House right now?

:rofl:

:rofl:

Call the Waaaaahmbulance....They won't give me my SURGE troops!!! Uncle Dick! Uncle Dick!!!

[progressoid]

20. Let's see, how many does that leave us for Iran?

[Bucky]

21. Those generals have more troops than that. They're just hiding 'em!

Buncha wimps... they're probably hiding in hospitals, physical therapy clinics, and in "rest and re-training" modes between deployments. Bush only needs two or three months a year for vacation time... How come these so-called "troops" need more than three months recuperation between deployments? Obviously the army is objectively pro-terrorist.

[NewJeffCT]

38. not wimps - surrender monkeys!

As the NY Post would have it.

[lebkuchen]

23. Stripes headline today is 10,000

No one on this side of the pond is breathing a sigh of relief, and why should they? Soldiers haven´t seen any relief since our war president took office.

...


The Army is prepared to send about 10,000 extra troops to Iraq if requested by President Bush, a defense official said Thursday.

http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=42575

[dogday]

24. Sounds like our troop levels are shot and

that is not a good thing... I thought they had been building up the Military....

[Presidentcokedupfratboy]

25. These guys don't give a damn

About the troops.....neocons are all for sending kids off to war, as long as they don't have to do the fighting.

[NewJeffCT]

39. I think

They are trying to break the army... This will allow them to justify using more mercenaries in the future by saying that they need those types to fight the new wars of the future.

[The_Casual_Observer]

26. "Back to the drawing board"

- Peter Arno

[lpbk2713]

28. 9,002 Counting the First Twins

.... and then of course there's Jebbie's brood.



Are ya listenin' Dumbya?

[BeHereNow]

34. Sorry, the Twins are not available- they are busy partying in South America...

...not to mention sealing the Paraguay land deal for the
Bush KKKabal to survive the global weather crisis.
Katrina to the rest of us.
BHN

[DBoon]

29. We need a surge protector

[Lone_Star_Dem]

32. It appears he's used up all the military surplus as well as monetary surplus

His presidency has been a very expensive lesson for America.

[LittleClarkie]

33. Sen. McCain, you said a cotton pickin' mouthful, but you're a tad late

Not sending enough troops to secure the country in the very beginnging was part of the problem. But the neocons were convinced that they knew better about the military than the likes of Colin Powell.

[theHandpuppet]

35. Here's Bush's "missing army" -- a MUST READ

http://www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu/PressClips/04_0702_UPI.htm

[wake.up.america]

36. Do I laugh or cry? Bush has no idea about the state of his military

[HCE SuiGeneris]

41. My thoughts exactly

Here we have a Prez/Dictator that has no idea of his resources. Incompetence... incompetence and... wait for it...

INCOMPETENCE! Fuck him and his useless band of criminals. We need leadership -- not a brain-dead egotist.

[Rose Siding]

44. He'll take 'em

Jr doesn't care one way or the other. It's all for show anyway. It's all about him maintaining a facade of resolve. :(

[ClintonTyree]

51. And buying enough time...

so he can slip out of Washington in January 2009 and hand the entire mess off to another President. "Everything was fine in Iraq when I left", he'll say. "That other President 'cut and ran' and ruined any chance for victory in EyeRack". :eyes: I can hear him now. Once again passing the blame for his boneheaded mistakes onto someone else. He's never wrong, you know? :puke:

[NNN0LHI]

45. No Boy Scouts to send? n/t

[DBoon]

50. You mean like the boy scouts this desparate leader tried to send

[pinniped]

46. * might try to get the ROTC.

Are they going to lower the enlistment age?

[MichiganVote]

48. CORRECTION: 9002 with Bush's own kids. Go for it George.McCain&Lieberman

[Bjorn Against]

49. Where were those 9,000 troops when New Orleans needed them?

We can send 9,000 people off to die in an illegal war, but we have no one left to actually protect our own nation. Another national disaster hits and it will see the same response we saw with Katrina because our National Guard is no longer defending our nation.

[tom_paine]

52. Will we be seeing Hitler's Phantom Divisions for Chimpy Bushler?

Consider, for a moment, the man Bushler, so similar in temprement to Mr. hitler. Petulant, vindictive, childish, murderous, contempotuous, etc.

(yes I recognize, thank God, Bush is nowhere near as evil as Hitler, but they are still different degrees of the same megalomania)

Who will TELL DER FUEHRER we have no troops to send to Iraq?

Will it be you, Jodl/Petreaus? Will it be YOU? I'm not going to do it, and so forth...

Now that it is becoming clear that Bush is indeed batshit crzy with an oedipal complex the size of a dump truck, who will tell Little Boots?

Is it possible, even slightly, that such a thing could come to pass in some form. Phatom Divisions told to Little Boots to keep him shut up and happy while the others try to work?

I am forced to conclude that while it isn't probable, the degree of delusion, dishonesty, and corruption shown by the Busheviks at all levels (except Poppy's friends, who are just as bad but more sensible) makes it possible.

:-(

[Vidar]

53. Pesky reality.

[magellan]

54. Recruit cardboard standups

"Fire all phasers!"

[Bucky]

55. I think the Republicans tried a cardboard stand up in 2000. Didnt' work out too good.

Of course part of that is because the cardboard in question had trouble standing up.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

57. They're doing marvelous things with terra cotta these days...