The One Benefit of the War in Afghanistan

General Roy Odierno, the commanding officer in Iraq, said that escalation in Afghanistan could lead to a quicker reduction in American troop levels in Iraq.

Odierno pointed out that up to 4,000 troops could be leaving Iraq by the end of October, noting, "That's a bit faster than we originally planned." Really, general? You sure 4,000 isn't too ambitious? Most of Obama's campaign timelines would have had us out of there by now, and as it is, his current timeline calls for the end of combat operations in ten months.

There are currently 124,000 American troops in Iraq, and 66,000 in Afghanistan. Even after a full "pull-out", the U.S would still have have 30,000-50,000 troops based in Iraq. If you run some elemenatary school math on that, between now and August, 2010, we should be withdrawing troops at a rate of 7,500 a month. And now we now that we can thank the War in Afghanistan for any acceleration in those withdrawals.