He also announced the withdrawal of roughly 8,000 troops from Iraq of the 146,000 U.S. forces there by next February, a slight reduction that will keep troop levels "several thousand above what they were in January 2007 when he announced the 'surge.'" Brian Katulis, a Center for American Progress Senior Fellow, writes in the Guardian today that political reconciliation, despite Bush's rosy claims,s has completely stalled. "When it comes to true power-sharing -- who has control of the guns, money and other key state resources like -- Iraq has not moved forward substantially," Katulis writes. Though Iraq "is a less violent place," Katulis argues, "it remains a fragmented country." "By overstating the gains to date on Iraq's political transition, Bush continues to overstate the considerable challenges that lie ahead," he adds. Today, the Iraqi parliament reconvenes after a one-month recess to work on an election law; elections were supposed to take place this fall but, the date has been steadily pushed back to, at best, "early next year."
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