Iraq Coalition Casualties Report - 2745 Dead - 743 Iraq security forces killed in June
US November Congressional Elections Republican Party Strategy - Reversing US public support for the Iraq war central to both Bush’s survival and that of the party - According to a classified briefing at the Pentagon last week by the top commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the number of American combat brigades in Iraq is projected to decrease to 5 or 6 from the current level of 14 by December 2007. At the end of that year, the United States would still have responsibility for the Iraq capital and the area west of Baghdad. American officials emphasized that any withdrawals would hinge on continued progress, including the creation of competent Iraqi security forces, a reduction in Sunni Arab hostility toward the fledgling Iraqi government and the assumption that the insurgency will not expand beyond Iraq's six central provinces. General Sattler projected that the 10,000 trained Iraqi security forces now in Anbar would double by year's end.
The new details about plans to draw down troop levels came after a two-week campaign by Republicans — backed by senior White House and party political strategists — to paint Democratic Congressional resolutions seeking timetables for withdrawal as calls to "cut and run." On Sunday, Democrats said that their attempts to seek a timeline had been vindicated by the president's own military planners.
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