92,000 US troops told to prepare for Iraq rotation

92,000 US troops told to prepare for Iraq rotation

By Charles
Aldinger
Mon Nov 7, 5:03 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "The Pentagon on Monday notified 92,000 fresh
U.S. troops to prepare for rotation to Iraq over a two-year
period beginning in mid-2006, but cautioned that the number did not
signal immediate plans to slash a much-higher U.S. troop level now
in that country.

There are currently about 160,000 American troops in Iraq. That
total, boosted to help security for elections in October and
December, is above the usual "baseline" level of about 138,000 U.S.
troops stationed there.

President George W. Bush, whose plunge in popularity at home has
been partly because of growing U.S. casualties in Iraq since the
March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, is under heavy pressure to make cuts
in American forces there.

But Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have stressed that
any U.S. troop reductions will depend on the Iraqi security forces'
ability to take over defense of their country from insurgents and
foreign fighters.

"This announcement of initial units for rotation is not a decision
to change the baseline structure" of 138,000, said Pentagon
spokesman Bryan Whitman on Monday.

Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable, another Pentagon spokesman, said that
more American troops were likely to be notified later that they will
be added to the rotation relief of current U.S. forces there, "but
we have time to wait while the situation in Iraq continues to be
assessed."

Rumsfeld cautioned at a Pentagon news conference with visiting
British Defense Minister John Reid earlier on Monday that the
rotation announcement was routine and did not signal a final
decision had been made by commanders in Iraq on lower U.S. troops
levels.

Rumsfeld said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. George Casey, the commander of
coalition forces in Iraq, continued to assess the capabilities of
Iraq's own security forces, but had made no recommendations yet for
new U.S. levels.

The Pentagon said the breakdown included 79,531 Army troops, 5,359
Marines, 3,697 Navy sailors and 3,356 Air Force personnel."