Pat Dollard | Young Americans

President Bush gave a great speech full of information on Iraq successes and future deployments at the national Defense University today. I’ll put up most of that speech in the video section a little later.

WASHINGTON- WASHINGTON — President Bush announced Tuesday that the Marine battalion that had been scheduled to deploy to Iraq in November will instead go to Afghanistan.

The battalion, roughly 1,000 Marines, will be followed in January by an Army combat brigade. A brigade is 3,500-4,000 troops.

The president said he also plans to order 8,000 more combat and support troops out of Iraq by February, but plans to keep the bulk of U.S. force strength in Iraq largely intact until the next president takes over. No more combat brigades will come home from Iraq for the rest of this year.

Bush said the mission of the forces headed to Afghanistan will be to work with “Afghan forces to provide security for the Afghan people, protect Afghanistan’s infrastructure and democratic institutions and help insure access to services like education and health care.

“They will show the citizens of Afghanistan that the government and its partners will stand with them in the battle against the Taliban and extremists,” the president said in a speech at the National Defense University.

The move answers in part calls from Democrats to move forces out of Iraq and shift a more sizable troop to Afghanistan.

Nonetheless, about 146,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq. Bush said more troops may be withdrawn in the first half of 2009 if conditions improve, but that decision will left to his successor. Bush leaves office Jan. 20.

“Here is the bottom line: While the enemy in Iraq is still dangerous, we have seized the offensive, Iraqi forces are becoming increasingly capable of leading and winning the fight,” Bush said.

But Democrats quickly shot back that Bush isn’t doing enough to get troops out of Iraq, and into Afghanistan, where violence is rising.

“The president’s plan to reduce force levels in Iraq may seem to signal movement in the right direction, but it really defers troop reductions until the next administration,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo. “More significant troop reductions in Iraq are needed so that we can start to rebuild U.S. military readiness and provide the additional forces needed to finish the fight in Afghanistan.”

Said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: “I am stunned that President Bush has decided to bring so few troops home from Iraq and send so few resources to Afghanistan.”

Despite complaints about U.S. war policy, the president described how the surge had enabled Iraq to reduce violence, improve governance and return normalcy of life.

His military commanders say the security improvements in the country are becoming more durable, yet still fragile, and that is reason to pursue the cautious approach of keeping most U.S. forces in country.

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In his upbeat account of the war, the president shared credit all around. “The progress in Iraq is a credit to the valor of American troops and civilians, the valor of Iraqi forces and the valor of our coalition partners,” he said.

During his remarks, Bush also said he called the newly elected leader of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, and pledged U.S. support “as Pakistan takes the fight to terrorists and extremists in the border regions.”

(Fox)