BAGHDAD (AFP) - Around 5,000 American troops will head home later this month as part of a withdrawal plan announced by President George W. Bush, US military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said Saturday.


"Current conditions allow for a withdrawal of the first unit, the Grey Wolf Brigade, starting on November 27th," Smith told reporters at a press conference in Baghdad.

The brigade will not be replaced, he said, adding the drawdown is an indication of "overall improved security within Iraq as well as the improved capabilities of the Iraqi security forces."

The brigade has been deployed in restive Diyala province where a series of military crackdowns have been launched targeting Al-Qaeda militants.

In September, Bush announced plans for the immediate withdrawal of a marine expeditionary unit of about 2,000 troops, followed by a combat brigade by December.

He further said that four army combat brigades and two marine battalions would return home by July 2008, reducing US forces to pre-surge levels of 15 combat brigades, or around 130,000 troops.

In February, Bush announced 28,500 extra troops would be sent as part of a controversial "surge" to quell bloodshed in Iraq.

ANOTHER

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

I am sure the other 155,000 troops will be happy as sh-t to hear this.

For once we agree on something.
I am POSITIVE that the other troops see this as a good sign!
It portends the day when they too will get to come home....

The longer the war has gone on the closer all sides seem to get...on...
the "on-the-ground" general success of new tactics, including "the surge",
the willingness to push Iraqis to take more control,
the need to "rest" our forces and recoup, while leaving
some force in place. I believe it is reality setting in.

Only the desired pace of the movements differ.

Even those of us who strongly objected to the invasion realize
we must wait for the paint to dry to get out of the corner.

I hope many of those relieved are Reserves and National Guard on repeat tours.
I'll let the on-going debate rest for this day...and simply give thanks.
Welcome Home boys, welcome home....

A small cost to the Cheny-Bush Administration to maintain the BIG LIE...Any celebration is a celebration of Bush's ability to maintain the big lie.

That WAS the point of this thread.....

Unless of course it is your nephew/niece, cousin, son, daughter, husband/wife; related
to someone you love; or just a "brother" in the fraternal sense.

Then it's personal, God-sent...and definately a reason for celebration.

Cops, firefighters and their families/friends do it too...even if they don't care
for the law enforced or the building/people saved...kind of a shared tradition of thanks for survival I guess.

Shared by those with a common definition of:

Duty -
(n.) Respect; reverence; regard; act of respect; homage.
(n.) Specifically, obedience or submission due to parents and superiors.
(n.) Hence, any assigned service or business; as, the duties of a policeman, or a soldier; to be on duty.
(n.) That which a person is bound by moral obligation to do, or refrain from doing; that which one ought to do; service morally obligatory.
(n.) That which is due; payment.

God bless 'em...

God bless them is right, IH. I look forward to the time when the vast majority of them come home.

Ya know, most of us got here because of a rebel Vietnam Vet named John Kerry.
A Mass. Rebel at that. Next month I will shoot photos of a rededication of a
Confederate monument at Port Hudson, La. and will remember the first regiment
of Black soldiers in The War Between the States...who in fact led the first Black
assault against Confederates at Port Hudson. They were Louisiana men who
guarded New Orleans for the Confederacy before the Union took the city and drafted them.

I have an abiding respect for those who fought for their cause...
Vietnamese rebels included...it might not make sense to most.

When I look forward, I pray for the day when all soldiers come "home".
When all people see the waste in war...and The Prince of Peace reigns.
Until then...I will step aside only to such brothers-in-arms...and celebrate
anytime they come home...cause I love their imperfect, glorious butts.