WP: Rumsfeld: No Need for More US Troops (+ more lies)

[kskiska]

Monday, November 3, 2003; Page A01

(snip)

Two influential senators said yesterday the answer may be an increase in U.S. forces. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "in the short term, we may need more American forces in there while we're training these people up." He said the administration also needed to enlist European allies by giving them a greater say in the postwar enterprise. Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), the committee chairman, echoed Biden's comments on the same program.

But Rumsfeld said that although the number of U.S. troops in Iraq has declined from 150,000 to 130,000, "the total number of the security forces in the country has been going up steadily" because the number of forces contributed by other countries has remained steady at 30,000 and the number of Iraqi forces has "gone from zero on May 1st up to over 100,000 today."

Rumsfeld said "it's the totality of those three that needs to go up, and it is going up steadily. And there has not been a need for additional U.S. forces."

The administration has not explained why its estimate of the number of Iraqi forces has risen so rapidly. On Oct. 9, L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, told a news conference in Baghdad that 60,000 Iraqis were providing security to their country. On Thursday, about three weeks later, Rice told foreign reporters the overall number was "over 85,000 and growing." That same day, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz told an audience at Georgetown University the figure was "some 80,000 to 90,000."

On Saturday, the day before Rumsfeld said there were more than 100,000, a senior official in the occupation authority provided a figure of nearly 85,000, which included 50,000 police, 20,000 in the facility protection service, 7,800 in the civil defense corps, 5,000 border guards and 1,400 in a new Iraqi army.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55016-2003Nov2.html

[VolcanoJen]

1. Dupe (kinda....) - Not locking.

This is a duplicate headline of the story that kayell posted, which can be found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=196676

However, this an amazing front-page WP story, and shocking headline, considering its placement beneath the news of the Chinook helicopter.

There's other news in here, and although the headline is similar, it's not really a dupe.

Good stuff in here, kskiska. Thanks for the link.

VolcanoJen
DU Moderator

[IndianaGreen]

2. These people can't even keep their lies straight.

More GIs died in Vietnam during the phased withdrawals of Vietnamization than died in the years prior. I fear the same will happen here by the Bush regime's refusal to put adequate forces on the ground.

Bring the troops home, NOW!

[LiberalFighter]

3. 100,000 more Iraqi forces in addition to US forces?

That makes 230,000 total... almost double used to begin the war.

What are they doing? Can you imagine the fear or doubt that our troops would have if they did the same calculation?

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

4. nearly 2/3 dead since the carrier debacle

Soon it will be nearly 3/4th, sad to say.