Do Not Forget: 50,000 Troops Will Remain in Iraq

The media is reporting that the last combat brigade will soon leave Iraq. Some commentators are declaring an official end of the war.

Yet, lost beneath the headlines and fanfare is the following fact: around 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq. The government is not describing them as combat troops. Instead, it is calling these soldiers advisers, as the Washington Post reports:

By the end of this month, the United States will have six brigades in Iraq, by far its smallest footprint since the 2003 invasion. Those that remain are conventional combat brigades reconfigured slightly and rebranded "advise and assist brigades." The primary mission of those units and the roughly 4,500 U.S. special operations forces that will stay behind will be to train Iraqi troops.

The Iraq War will continue to exact financial and physical costs on the United States and the people of Iraq.

President and Nobel Laureate Obama Sends 13,000 More Troops to Afghanistan

President and Nobel Laureate Barack Obama has quietly approved and the military will soon deploy 13,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. The Washington Post reports that the additional troops are "support troops," including "engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police." In March, Obama sent 21,000 additional "combat troops" to the region.

According to defense experts quoted by the Washington Post, additional support troops are always needed when combat troops are increased. The White House, however, did not publicize President Obama's subsequent approval of additional support troops following the March increase in combat troops. Defense Department officials, however, have provided a clearer picture:

"The 21,000 are only combat forces, and when the combat forces go in, there are a certain amount of additional forces that are required," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who signs the deployment orders, had military officials identify last spring the entire scope of the increase and agreed that he would consult with Obama again if the Pentagon sought to go above that, Whitman said.

"Obama authorized the whole thing. The only thing you saw announced in a press release was the 21,000," said another defense official familiar with the troop-approval process.

Counting both support and combat troops, President Obama has authorized 34,000 additional troops for Afghanistan. Currently, the combined troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq exceed the number of troops during the height of the infamous Iraq "surge" of late 2007 and early 2008. Also, the White House is considering a request by General Stanley McChrystal for the deployment of thousands of additional combat troops to Afghanistan. This is definitely "Obama's War."