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Measured Iraq Reduction Planned

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The Associated Press

Published: September 9, 2008

WASHINGTON - President Bush plans to keep the number of U.S. troops in Iraq near the current level through the end of the year and will pull home about 8,000 U.S. troops by February, when the next president will be in charge of wartime decision-making.

If security in Iraq keeps improving, Bush says, "additional reductions will be possible in the first half of 2009."

The president's decisions amount to perhaps his last major troop strategy in a war that has come to define his presidency.

He was to announce the details in a speech today, the text of which was released in advance by the White House.

A single Marine battalion, with about 1,000 troops, will go home on schedule in November and not be replaced. An Army brigade of between 3,500 and 4,000 troops will leave in February. Accompanying that combat drawdown will be the withdrawal of about 3,400 support forces.

The measured reduction, slower in scope and pace than many Democrats in Congress would like, gives the military some flexibility to shift forces into Afghanistan.

"Here is the bottom line: While the enemy in Iraq is still dangerous, we have seized the offensive, and Iraqi forces are becomingly increasingly capable of leading and winning the fight," Bush said in remarks prepared for delivery to the National Defense University in Washington.

There are about 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Bush argued that Iraq is in a better place now by almost any measure. He said violence is at its lowest point since the spring of 2004, "normal life is returning to communities across the country," and political reconciliation is moving forward.

The president said security gains remain fragile, but have taken on some degree of durability.

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