WASHINGTON, February 25, 2008 - Both the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen and the Army Chief of staff, General George Casey have stated that repeated Iraq deployments are severely straining military readiness, making our nation less capable of dealing with other serious threats.

The Pentagon acknowledged that it will maintain a force of 140,00 troops in Iraq through July 2008, 8,000 more than the pre-surge troop level in January of last year.

This indicates that the President’s troop surge was not a temporary measure, as it was described and sold to Congress by the Bush administration months ago.

There will be more U.S. Troops in Iraq this summer than there were at the end of 2006, when the American people demanded a New Direction in Iraq.

Polls indicate that most Americans continue to demand a New Direction in Iraq and reject the President’s plan for a 10-year, trillion dollar war in Iraq.

Send us your FEEDBACK about this story!