The White House is batting around an idea to briefly increase the number of troops in Iraq to stabilize it before beginning a gradual withdrawal from the war zone. The increase could raise the number of American troops in Iraq to around 180,000.
Let's put this into a historical analysis:
During Operation Desert Storm, the U.S. military used 575,000 soldiers to liberate a nation the size of New Jersey. It took 100 hours and an air campaign that took several weeks.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military used 100,000 soldiers to conquer a nation the size of California. They've been fighting for three years and there's no end in sight. Current troop levels are around 140,000 in Iraq.
Guess what? An additional 40,000 soldiers won't make a whole lot of difference in the long run. Bumping the number up to 500,000 would.
They need to really think this through before sending more troops in.
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