Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in an interview yesterday that the United States could withdraw as many as 50,000 troops by the end of the year, declaring there are enough Iraqi forces trained and ready to begin assuming control in cities throughout the country.
Let me just say that if 50,000 will be freed up by the end of the year, in a couple months we might have 30,000. Or some other lesser or greater number depending on the state of the Iraqi security forces. And while the assumption is that excess troops will come home, I don't know why that is necessarily true.
If we want to overthrow the mullahs, we will need troops to support the revolt. We need to get troops to the region to do this without their deployment being noticed. What better way than to use troops already in the region?
So if we do take down the mullahs this fall after the Iraqi and Afghan elections, US troops in OIF that have turned over security duties to Iraqi units will plunge into Iran to make sure the revolution holds.
I'm just speculating of course. But I have to believe that this administration is serious about ending Iran's threat to our safety.