Bush Announces Iraq Troop Cut By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service

Bush Announces Iraq Troop Cut - Jim Garamone, Armed Forces Press Service

The United States will continue to reduce its troop strength in Iraq, but will increase its footprint in Afghanistan, President Bush said here today.

The president accepted the recommendations of military leaders to reduce US troop levels in Iraq by 8,000 through January. If security conditions continue to improve in the country, further reductions will be possible, Bush said at the National Defense University.

Bush also announced plans to deploy a Marine battalion to train Afghan National Army troops in November and to send an Army brigade to Afghanistan in January.

Bush said security progress in Iraq is responsible for the reduction. The progress is an outgrowth of the success of the surge, launched Jan. 10, 2007, that fed five US Army brigades, a Marine expeditionary unit and two Marine battalions into Iraq through June 2007. Bush called the reductions the “return on success” strategy. That strategy calls for reducing American combat forces in Iraq as conditions on the ground continue to improve.

More at Armed Forces Press Service, Washington Post, Voice of America, Christian Science Monitor, The Times, Daily Telegraph and The Australian.