Today, Obama addressed America and the World announcing his plan for a responsible drawdown from Iraq. The first part of Obama's strategy is the removal of our combat brigades from Iraq. Initially, this force will likely be made up of 35,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops. Through this period of transition, they will carry out further redeployment's. And under the status-of-forces agreement with the Iraqi government, Obama intends to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. Obama has already announced that the US will send another 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, many of the 17,000 extra US troops would be deployed in the "Pushtun South" region. Obama's Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, has said the Administration will be looking for our European allies to boost their presence in Afghanistan also. America currently has around 38,000 troops serving in Afghanistan. Congress already has approved $65.9 billion in emergency wartime spending for the fiscal year (2009) and there has been an additional request for 75.5 billion more. The latest request would bring the total to about $141.4 billion in addition to Defense Department budget of about $534 billion. Obama has supported a timeline of 16 months to carry out this drawdown during his campaign, and now has chosen a timeline that will remove our combat brigades over the next 18 months. Just two months longer than he had suggested during the campaign for office. Obama was not clear when the our troops serving in Afghanistan or other areas of the Middle East will come home.
Published by Faith Hope And Politics 2009
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