Can Anyone In Washington Count?
by James Glaser
July 23, 2008

Yesterday it was reported that George Bush's and John McCain's year long troop "surge" is over in Iraq, but like the way Washington figures out inflation, the numbers don't really add up. When President Bush ordered the troop surge in Iraq last year, we had 130,000 troops there. Bush sent an additional 30,000 troops to the combat zone, but now with the surge over, it is reported that we still have 147,000 troops in Iraq.

June 22, 2008, in an article by Tim Cocks, Reuters quotes the U.S. military as saying, "The final elements of the surge brigades in Iraq have now left, getting out a few days ahead of schedule."

Well if the "final elements" left, where did the extra 17,000 troops come from? Wouldn't you know, they have an answer for that (from the same Reuters report), "You don't necessarily get a one for one swap when a new brigade relieves one that is leaving—in some instances, some of the arriving brigades have been considerably larger than the brigades they replaced."

17,000 extra troops seems like a bit more than "considerably larger" to me. In fact, it would seem to me that they have removed less than one half the number of the troops that made up the original troop surge numbers. Of course who is counting? Obviously, not Washington.

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