The Defense Department announced today that there are plans to return approximately 30,000 troops from Iraq, without replacing them. Now, we knew this was coming, because, after all, that’s part of the game plan to steal the 2006 mid-term elections and protect the Republican majority in both houses of Congress. And, of course, the troops have to start being reduced soon, because that one little item, happening in late October, won’t be enough to swing the election all by itself. And heaven knows, with Mr Bush’s disastrous poll numbers these days, it would be foolhardy to depend only on the corrupted Diebold and ESS machines.

As the top U.S. commander in Iraq suggested today that the United States would soon reduce the number of troops in Iraq, Pentagon planners said to ABC News that they hoped to pull more than 30,000 troops out by the end of the year, and possibly by as early as November.

The reductions depend on political and security progress in Iraq.

In a surprise visit to Baghdad, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld hailed progress toward the formation of a new Iraqi government as a "turning point" that would enable the United States to turn over more responsibility to the Iraqis.

Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, called the recent selection of new Iraqi leaders, including incoming Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a major step toward a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops.

So, in a sense, it’s good news for the oxygen breathing side of the universe. This small drop in the bucket certainly won’t be enough to attack, invade, and occupy Iran. But it will have some minor effect on Bu$hCo’s poll numbers for a day or two. Even though we’re not permitted to see troops returning in a horizontal position, watch for lots of film of smiling troops deplaning, and rushing into the welcome arms of their adoring families.

I know I sound cynical, and I am, but goodness, won’t it be nice to see some of them coming home again?