A Rose By Any Other Name

Prior to the Iraq War, I guessed we'd have 7 brigades as part of 75,000 military forces in Iraq once the fighting ended. I've worried that our combat forces would be too small given the lengthy post-major combat operations COIN fight. But it seems like we'll have sufficient ground combat forces to pose as a real deterrent to Iranian conventional military adventures:

President Obama has said all "combat" troops will depart Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, leaving a residual force of 35,000 to 50,000 until the end of the following year. According to Army officials interviewed by the investigators, the intention is for six of the current 14 brigades in Iraq to remain behind after the combat departures.

Our brigades are smaller now than when I spoke of seven, but our brigades are also better now after six years of improvement and combat experience. That we can support this number of combat brigades with what could be less than half of what I guessed implies that we will still rely on lots of contractors for many support functions I had assumed our uniformed military would provide.

So fewer troops but the same capabilities I hoped for, I'd say. No matter what we call it.

This is good.