military

Iraq, Afghanistan to Get Troop Cuts

By Erick Stakelbeck
Washington Terror Analyst

CBN.com –WASHINGTON - At the Pentagon today, President Bush talked about America's progress in Iraq and Afghanistan--and the challenges that still lie ahead for 2006.

The President was upbeat after meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and several top u.s. generals. He pointed to several major successes in Iraq during 2005, including December's parliamentary elections. He noted the large Sunni turnout for those elections, and praised the performance of Iraqi troops.

“Numbers are one thing,” said Bush, “but the ability to perform is another. And during these elections, the Iraqi troops showed our commanders on the ground and showed the American people, that they're becoming more and more capable of performing their duties to provide security to the Iraqi people.”

That is a major reason why Bush said that U.S. troop levels in Iraq will decrease in 2006 from 17 brigades down to 15. He also vowed that U.S. troops will work more closely with Iraqi police, in hopes of handing over increased responsibility to the Iraqi people. But patience is still the byword.

The President said, “My decisions will be based upon conditions on the ground and the recommendations of our commanders--not by false political timetables in Washington, D.C. I'm not going to let politics get in the way of doing the right thing in Iraq, and the American people have got to understand that.”

As for the war on terror's other major front, Afghanistan, the President called progress there "amazing," and said that u.s. troop levels in the former Taliban stronghold would decrease in 2006 from 19,000 to 16,500.

The President says that U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan will remain on the hunt for al-Qaeda terrorists in 2006, and are determined to bring the group's leader in Iraq--Abu Musab al-Zarqawi--to justice.

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