Dems criticize decision on troop levels

The announcement is likely Bush’s last major move on troop strategy in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush announced Tuesday that he will keep the U.S. force strength in Iraq largely intact until the next president takes over, drawing rebukes from Democrats who want the war ended and a bigger boost of troops in troubled Afghanistan.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, who has advocated pulling all U.S. combat forces out of Iraq within 16 months of taking office, said Bush’s plan to bring 8,000 combat and support troops home by February “comes up short.”

“It is not enough troops, and not enough resources, with not enough urgency,” Obama told reporters while campaigning in Riverside, Ohio.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he is “stunned that President Bush has decided to bring so few troops home from Iraq and send so few resources to Afghanistan.”

The House Armed Services chairman called Bush’s decision a deferral until the next administration. “More significant troop reductions in Iraq are needed,” said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo.

GOP nominee John McCain has also said more troops are needed in Afghanistan, where there has been a resurgence of the Taliban and a growth in violence. He said Tuesday that Bush’s announcement of troop withdrawals next year from Iraq “demonstrates what success in our efforts there can look like.”

The president’s drawdown is not as strong or swift as long anticipated by many. It had been widely expected that Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, would perhaps call for a reduction in the number of combat brigades from 15 to 14 this fall. Instead, no more Army combat brigades will withdraw in 2008, the final year of a Bush presidency that has come to be dominated by the war.

“Either way, people would question: Should he send more? Should he send less?” White House press secretary Dana Perino said. “He thinks that he hit it just right.”

Bush’s announcement, in a speech at the National Defense University, is perhaps his last major move on troop strategy in Iraq. Though most U.S. forces are staying, Bush chose to emphasize that he was moving forward with “additional force reductions.” And he said more U.S. forces could be withdrawn in the first half of 2009 if conditions improve in Iraq.

But by then, he’ll be out of office. His successor will be making the wartime decisions.

Still, he showed again that he determines when and how U.S. troops return from war, despite a fiercely opposition-controlled Congress and a soured American public.