Gates Raises Prospect of More Troop Cuts to 100,000 by Dec. '08

[Breeze54]

Gates Raises Prospect of More Troop Cuts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6922698,00.html

By ROBERT BURNS (AP Military Writer)
From Associated Press

September 14, 2007 6:14 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -


Defense Secretary Robert Gates answers a question during a Pentagon briefing,
Friday, Sept. 14, 2007. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari) Haraz N. Ghanbari

Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility Friday of cutting U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 100,000 by the end of next year, well beyond the cuts President Bush has approved.

Stressing that he was expressing a hope, not an administration plan, Gates said it was possible that conditions in Iraq would improve enough to merit much deeper troop cuts than are currently scheduled for 2008.

Asked at a news conference whether he was referring to going from today's level of about 169,000 U.S. troops to about 100,000 by the end of next year, Gates replied, "That would be the math." He quickly added, however, that because "there is no script" in war, his hoped-for cuts could vanish.

It was the first time a member of Bush's war cabinet had publicly suggested such deep reductions, perhaps offering a conciliatory hand to anti-war Democrats and some wary Republicans in Congress who have been pushing for troop reductions, a change in the U.S. mission and an end to the war.

Next week, the Senate is expected to resume debate on anti-war legislation.

Gates used his news conference to launch an attack on efforts by Democrats to force Bush to change course in Iraq by imposing new restrictions on how the Pentagon uses or manages the armed forces.

Gates was particularly pointed in his criticism of a proposal by Sen. James Webb, D-Va., to require that troops be given as much time at their home station as on deployments to the war front. Today, active-duty Army units are on 15-month deployments with a promise of no more than 12 months rest, and Marines who spend seven or more months at war sometimes get six months or less at home.

Gates said that while he believed such proposals are well-intentioned, they have serious flaws. He said, for example, that Webb's amendment, if enacted, would force him to consider again extending tours in Iraq.

"We would have to accept gaps in capability as units that rotate home aren't replaced right away for periods perhaps of weeks," Gates said. It also might put troops' lives in greater danger by reducing opportunities for incoming units to get acquainted with their responsibilities by working for a few weeks with outgoing units, he said.

"The other message that I worry that some of the amendments send is that it sends a signal to potential adversaries that we're stretched so thinly and that we are so strained that we cannot adequately respond to crises elsewhere in the world," Gates said. "And that's not a correct view, if others should take it, but it is a worry."

More........

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Anne Flaherty and Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.

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Gates was interviewed on PBS News Hour tonight also.
I heard his say he wanted to cut the troops BY HALF by December 2008!!