( WSJ ) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it is his "hope" that the U.S. might be able to reduce the size of the U.S. force in Iraq to about 100,000 troops by the end of 2008, but he warned that predicting such reductions so far into the future is difficult.
"My hope is that when he does his assessment in March, that Gen. [David] Petraeus will be able to say that he thinks that the pace of the drawdowns can continue at the same rate in the second half of the year as in the first half of the year".