Eight thousand additional US troops will return with honor from Iraq in 2009, including a Marine battalion and Army brigade that will depart en masse and not be replaced:
“Here is the bottom line: While the enemy in Iraq is still dangerous, we have seized the offensive, and Iraqi forces are becoming increasingly capable of leading and winning the fight,” Mr. Bush says in the speech. “As a result, we have been able to carry out a policy of ‘return on success’ — reducing American combat forces in Iraq as conditions on the ground continue to improve.”
The force reductions approve recommendations made by commanders on the ground based on the apparent “durability” of recent gains there and the increased combat capability of the Iraqi Army. The move also enables a re-shuffle of 4500 additional ground forces to support stabilization efforts in Afghanistan, host to a much smaller NATO force of around 33,000 while also reducing Army tour lengths from 15 months to 12.
Probably a newsflash I missed somewhere along the way, but why does the NYT address the President as “Mr. Bush”?
Mike — probably what their “style manual” calls for — first reference includes the title, and subsequent ones use “Mr.” If there had been another reference to SecDef, probably would have been “Mr. Gates”, for example.
The “Mr.” thing is probably better than what they wanted to refer to the President as…….