Let’s look at the actual numbers.
The highest coalition troop levels in Iraq were at the end of 2005 when there were 160,000 US troops and 23,000 coalition troops.
We couldn’d sustain that level, though, and by summer 2006 we were down to 130,000 US troops.
After the first surge this fall, we were back up to 140,000 US troops. But the number of coalition troops had dropped to 18,000.
Now we’re going to send 21,000 US troops, which barely puts us over where we were in December 2005. At the same time the British will be withdrawing 3,000 troops.
All in all, we end up with 7,000 fewer troops than in December 2005.
We couldn’t sustain that level for long then, how will we sustain it now?
We weren’t winning then, how can we win now?