Word: iraq
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...show for now, saying that if Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity can do it, why can't she? At the moment she's deciding how much of her audio self can be transferred to video. The radio show has the tightest format around. It begins with "news from Iraq and life during wartime," has several five-minute sermons on topics of the day, allows only two segments for interviews with newsmakers and journalists. As a break from the gargle of grim death, she answers nonpolitical questions from listeners ("Ask Dr. Maddow"). And toward the show's end she veers...
...rush to hand over responsibility for defending the country to Iraqis. Many on Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon had expected sharp cuts in U.S. troop levels there to begin this fall, but instead, the Pentagon is urging a more gentle paring of its 146,000 troop complement in Iraq. Following the Defense Department's recommendation, President Bush is expected on Tuesday to announce an 8,000-troop cut due to occur by the time his successor is inaugurated on January...
...General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, wanted to maintain the current force level through next June, but agreed to the modest troop reduction under pressure from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They are eager to divert additional troops to Afghanistan, which can only happen if troops are pulled out of Iraq. Petraeus will soon inherit responsibility for overseeing both Afghanistan and Iraq when he becomes head of U.S. Central Command...
...officials say the go-slow drawdown is driven by the fragility of the security gains in Iraq, where attacks by insurgents have fallen 80% since last year. But a lack of political progress in the country could trigger more violence, especially if large U.S. units pull out, Pentagon officials say. When the British pulled out of the southern city of Basra in 2007, the resulting vacuum was filled by Shi'ite militia units until the Iraqi government sent in its improving army in March and brought it under Baghdad's control. Petraeus also doesn't want to risk a security...
...Pentagon officials say there's no conflict between the slow withdrawal of U.S. troops and Baghdad's desire to buy warplanes. "The troop numbers are designed to stabilize Iraq in the short term," one said. "The F-16s - if they get them - are for the long term...