"What you'll have is you'll have a temporary increase to about 172,000
at its peak, and then that will come back down to about 160[,000], 162,000
as that turnover finishes," Maj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, director of
operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
In a briefing on Sept. 6, Sherlock said the peak of 172,000 troops could
extend into December 2007. He said the increase was the result of overlap
amid the current troops rotations.
"That should last sometime till around the November-December timeframe
as different brigades turn over," Sherlock said.
The highest previous troop level had been 160,000 in January 2005.
During most of 2006, the U.S. troop presence ranged from 126,000 to 135,000.
The record troop levels were reported ahead of plans by the U.S.
military to present a strategy for Iraq in 2008. Gen. David Petraeus, the
U.S. commander in Iraq, was scheduled to relay his recommendations to
Congress this week.
"Up front, my sense is that we have achieved tactical momentum and
wrested the initiative from our enemies in a number of areas in Iraq,"
Petraeus wrote in a message to U.S. service members on Sept. 7. "The result
has been progress in the security arena, although it has, as you know, been
uneven."
The increase in the U.S. military presence came as the British Army was
expected to reduce its 5,500-member force in southern Iraq. The British have
withdrawn from the city of Basra and was expected to leave the province in
November 2007.
"They're still working with the 10th Iraqi Army Division," Sherlock
said. "They're still working with the security forces throughout the
province and throughout MND-Southeast. So they haven't ceded ground. And
again we have to take a look at what occurs as we transfer that
responsibility to the Iraqi security forces."