3rd ID not coming home

Wasn't it only a few days ago that Rumsfeld promised Congress that the 3rd ID would be coming home in September? (July 9, to be exact.)

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rumsfeld said the division's 3rd Brigade has already reached Kuwait and will be heading home this month. The 2nd Brigade will be home in August and the 1st Brigade will return in September, he said. He said each of the final two brigades to leave Iraq will have been in the Gulf region for 10 months by the time they depart.

Boy, like every other promise made by Bush and his cabal, this one did not last long.

In an abrupt about-face, the U.S. military said Monday thousands of troops from the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) would stay in Iraq until further notice instead of returning by September in line with an announcement only last week.

The reversal is actually not surprising, given that India just decided to stay out of Iraq (it had considered sending a full division to Iraq), and the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate.

Another G.I. was killed yesterday, putting the US combat toll at just one below Gulf War I levels. Of course, this article (like many before it) conveniently neglects to count accidental deaths -- an inexplicable omission that undercounts the actual cost of the war. This AP story says 146 US dead. The actual toll is 220.

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For those who want a concise timeline of the Yellowcake trail of lies, ABC has the goods.

Posted July 15, 2003 06:57 AM