Iraq Troop Levels: Going Up, Not Down

Sending more troops in? Must be turning that corner again.

Bloomberg News: Abizaid Says No Troop Cuts in Iraq Before Mid-2007

The U.S. is unlikely to cut the number of its troops in Iraq until at least the middle of next year because the sectarian violence is greater than expected, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East said today.

General John Abizaid said the U.S. has over 140,000 troops in Iraq, up from about 131,600 in February when he, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, said troop levels might be reduced by the end of this year...

...The precise number of U.S. troops is murky. Abizaid today it was over 140,000. His staff later said it was closer to 142,000. Colonel Nelson McCouch, spokesman for Casey, said in an e-mail from Baghdad Sept. 17 that the current level is about 147,000...

Here's a recipe for you... more troops + same old failed plan = MORE FAILURE

It's really, really time to wrap this up. How many more years are we going to keep 'staying the course'?

Finally, some headlines that have been buried among all the Congressional Torture Saga...
-AFP: 22 killed in Iraq violence as US warns of upsurge
-AFP: Nearly 6,600 civilians killed in Iraq in two months: UN
-AP: U.S. military deaths in Iraq hit 2,687