Much of the talk at Congress over the past couple of days has been about numbers and, I must contend, vague expression about this or that strategy. Some argue that al-Maliki has to do honest business with Sunni Arabs and that Saudi Arabia must keep speaking to Iran and vice versa, another Sunni/Shiite issue (to generalize).
But what I take from the Petraeus transcript is a disarticulation of relationship between the “administration” and life on the ground, both for the soldiers and Iraqis. Troop reduction means what to them? How can normality be defined and by whom?
I’m also curious about the soldiers and Iraqis opinions on how troop reduction will effect them or what meaning it takes on. Will it cause more work for the fewer soldiers or is there just less likely to be attacks and the smaller amount of troops will be able to handle them?
As for normality if you are referring to Petraeus’ belief that smaller amounts of troops can maintain the same level of security as the current amount wouldn’t the data used to determine the security level be what defines normality and the U.S. agencies who gathered the data and Petraeus be who? While it not be the answer to the open ended question you ask it seems that those are the only peoples answers that will count.