August 25, 2007 (LPAC)--For months, mixed messages have been coming out of the Pentagon over how many troops the Army and the Marines will sustain in Iraq. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey has been making the case that the Army cannot sustain current troop levels much past April, 2008, warning recently that "We're consumed with meeting the current demands and we're unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as we would like for other contingencies." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace is reportedly ready to recommend a substantial reduction in troop levels to perhaps less than 100,000 (although he denied the report in a statement issued yesterday).

However, the Iraqi commanders recently installed by the White House are sending a different message. The New York Times reports that Gen. David Petreaus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, will be recommending a more modest reduction in his report, in September. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of the Third Infantry Division, which is responsible for the area south and east of Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon, yesterday, in response to a question about Sen. John Warner's recent proposal to begin small scale troop withdrawals in December, that if troops were to be pulled out of his area "the enemy would come back... and we would take a giant step backwards."

"At this point, the only question is when the drawdown begins and how fast it proceeds," one senior administration official involved in the debate told the Times.