Out of Iraq?

One of the day's top stories:

The first visible move toward reducing the American military force in Iraq could come as soon as March. That's when thousands of soldiers and Marines whose tours were extended before the Iraqi election are due to go home.

If they do, that would shrink the overall force to about 138,000, the level that prevailed for much of last year before U.S. commanders decided they needed extra troops for election security.

Whole bit here.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld remains pretty adamant that any reductions will be based on conditions on the ground, not a timetable, but it's clear that the political pressure to show at least a token withdrawal is building (both within the U.S. and in the Middle East).

Will be interesting to see if the reductions do happen…

Especially given the expressed wishes of some of the Iraqi government:

Iraqi President Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer said yesterday that it would be "complete nonsense" to ask foreign troops to leave the country now.

That AP report here.