The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung and Ann Scott Tyson report that the Pentagon doesn’t want any of its 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq to be leaving until George W. Bush leaves the White House. In early 2009, though, about 7,500 troops would be withdrawn. And around 3,500 soldiers would be re-deployed to Afghanistan. There are currently 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, though 14,000 are under the command of NATO.

The decision to delay Iraq withdrawal — and redeployment to Afghanistan — seems largely thanks to David Petraeus, who will soon move from leader of the Iraqi forces to head of U.S. Central Command. The "surge" of U.S. troops in Iraq is Petraeus’s baby and he has disagreed with Defense Secretary Robert Gates about how soon to shift forces to Afghanistan.

Certainly both countries are volatile and underprotected. But why doesn’t the Pentagon better acknowledge, through their recommended deployments, that violence is down in Iraq and soaring in Afghanistan?-MB

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