Staying Power

MSNBC published an article today with a rather alarmist title: Crumbling Coalition
The implication seems to be that our allies are somehow fleeing a sinking ship. As the article continues, it becomes apparent that the picture drawn by the doomsayers at AP is flawed and incomplete.

Some of the allies who have contributed to this effort are indeed beginning to call their troops home. In fact, some of the United States' own soldiers are returning home as well, reducing its committment from 155,000 to about 138,000.

With this bit of information in hand, the reader has to question the upsetting picture the AP is painting early in the article. In fact, the Associated Press has done the reader the favor of providing all the information he or she needs to dispell the illusion in its entirety. We have been provided the actual numbers.
In all, approximately 10,000 non-US coalition soldiers will have been pulled out of Iraq by the end of the year. This will leave approximately 22,000 non-US coalition troops in the country, a little over 2/3 of the peak number. Comparing this with US troop numbers completely demolishes the idea that there is some sort of bail-out going on. At peak, the US had committed around 300,000 troops to the action. At present, there are around 150,000 US soldiers remaining, with plans to reduce that number even further as the Iraqis take over responsibility for their own policing and security.

Wasn't that the plan all along?