Reallocation of Troops in the Middle East

As the Presidential Election intensifies and Americans are eagerly waiting to see the outcome of the long running Democratic Primary Elections, and then of course the seemingly forgotten General Election, plans for the future of U.S. troops are being mapped out.

According to Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, the recent violence in Basra and Baghdad will not deter plans for the withdrawal of 5 combat brigades from Iraq. This planned withdrawal means that by the end of July there will be 140,000 troops still left, the number there was before a “surge of force” last year, as compared to the 158,000 troops that are there now.

Although, Mullen says that the escalation of violence will not stop the Pentagon from pulling troops from the area, he does explain that at the end of this withdrawal in July they will have to stop and reassess the situation. He says that “This was a particularly violent week, timeframe, as we know and it is the kind of violence and lack of security that would certainly drive an assessment of what we would do after that." He was not able to say how long this reassessment would take.

In the meantime, Bush’s plans for Afghanistan are to significantly increase the number of troops there in 2009, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, which Bush discussed at a summit in Bucharest on Thursday, is to fight the Taliban insurgents. Although Bush leaves office in January 2009, Gates is confident that no matter who takes over, they will support this initiative because “there is broad bipartisan support in the United States for being successful” in Afghanistan.

As of now the U.S. is the biggest contributor to the NATO troops in Afghanistan which totals 47,000, with 17,000 of them being American. The U.S. has urged European allies to increase their efforts as well, but there seems to be some resentment, seeing as some countries are quite annoyed that this entire time America has focused most of their efforts on the War in Iraq rather than on Afghanistan.

Gates was asked if the additional troops in Iraq will depend on the expected withdrawal from Iraq and he believes it to be completely independent.

As the election rages on, these issues of military deployment become ever more pressing. Politicians are feeling the pressure to make some sort of movement in Iraq but the recent violence can make this difficult. The rare bipartisan support for the initiatives in Afghanistan do at least show promise of at least some sort of consistency when Bush’s presidency comes to an end and one of the three remaining candidates come into office.