Bush May Send 40,000 Additional Troops to Iraq
Washington AFP: 01/05/2007
American media sources mentioned yesterday that the American President George Bush may send almost 40,000 additional American troops to Iraq within the context of a new policy in Iraq that will be disclosed shortly.
The media expects Bush to send between 9,000 and 40,000 troops to Iraq, where there are currently 130,000 soldiers, according to military sources.
This step may provoke a controversy because of the growing resentment of the war in Iraq among Americans.
The CNN television network mentioned that Bush is thinking of sending between 20 and 40 thousand additional troops and that he may announce this at the beginning of next week.
An administration official who wished to remain anonymous told the network that the increase in the number of forces (...) is one of the current topics of discussion.
And the CBS news network mentioned, based on sources in the American army, that Bush is ready to send about 9,000 soldiers and components of the Marines to Iraq and to place an additional 11,000 in Kuwait and the United States in a state of readiness.
CBS said that two brigades of the American army, comprising about 7,500 soldiers, will head to Baghdad while about 1,500 Marine forces will be sent to the troubled Sunni al-Anbar province.
It added that another Army brigade would be standing ready in Kuwait while two more Army brigades would be standing ready in the United States.
The American McClatchy Press Group mentioned that Bush was thinking of sending three or four combat brigades to Iraq, or between 15 and 20 thousand troops.
And an anonymous official in the U.S. State Department told the press that the soldiers would not increase in numbers but would flow to Iraq.
Media sources warned that a final decision had not yet been taken on the +matter of the preparation of troops and that the number was not yet determined.
White House spokesperson Tony Snow said Wednesday that the president had not yet made a final decision.
The American president, in an article written and published yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, said he would address the American people to explain the new strategy with +regards to Iraq in the coming days.
He had said previously that he was studying all the options, among which was the temporary increase in American forces in Iraq.