[Pukin Dog]

The article is completly untrue. Abizaid has NOT called for more troops. He said only yesterday that more troops were not needed.

[68skylark]

Well I don't have a lot of strong feelings about this one way or the other -- I'm confident that Gen. Abizaid will get as many troops as he wants. We do know that soldiers from the 1st Armored Division got a letter from their commanding general, saying that some of them may have their tours extended by 90 days. So it seems possible that Gen. Abizaid really is looking to increase his troop strength above what it was previously planned to be.

[GraniteStateConservative]

"On Thursday, Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, said he wanted to increase his combat power in Iraq by 10,000 troops. By preventing the 1st Armored from rotating home, he would accomplish that because it would supplement forces that recently arrived to take its place."

That's calling for more troops and it's calling for them in a way that is politically expedient for the WH-- which is the preference of Rove. It's stretching the troops thin and risking morale for political gain. All because they are dead set against bringing in fresher troops because they don't want to talk about it on the talking head shows.