"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

US troops level at record high

Washington-The US has more troops in Iraq now than at any previous time in the war, with about 162 000 members of the military in the country, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman said the figure was due in part to handovers between units.As part of regular rotations,new US units work alongside those they are replacing for a period of time.Whitman said that,while troop levels often fluctuated,the previous high was generally considered to be about 161 000 in January2005, when Iraq held national elections.'There is no change to the level of effort'.As part of a plan announced by President George W Bush in January,the US military has added about 30 000 troops to its forces in Iraq-a measure known as the "surge".Whitman said the regular level of US forces,including troops involved in the surge, would be about 156 000 or 157 000 if no units were moving in or out.He said the rise above 160 000 was not due to any effort to increase the surge,which is highly controversial in Washington.
Democrats and some members of Bush's Republican party have argued it is time to pull troops out of Iraq."There is no change to the level of effort and the combat power that we are projecting into Iraq,"Whitman said.More than 3 680 US troops and many tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled Saddam Hussein.