Noting a "quiet surge" is taking place in Afghanistan, President Bush on Tuesday redirected a Marine battalion destined for Iraq to instead deploy to the Central Asian nation. 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 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 battalion, roughly 1,000 Marines, now headed to Afghanistan in November will be followed in January by an Army combat brigade. A brigade is 3,500-4,000 troops

This is exactly the way we should be doing this draw down. By slowly reducing the troops in Iraq, and concurrently increasing the troops in Afghanistan, we are insuring that Iraq will have a chance to grow, and Afghanistan can be stabilized. Should we completely abandon Iraq and make our soldiers sacrifices meaningless?

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