I guess John McCain should just concede to the Democrats now:

About 8,000 of the 30,000 “surge” troops sent to Iraq in 2007 will not go home as planned this summer, the Pentagon said Monday.

Support troops — including helicopter crews, supply units, military police and headquarters staff — will still be needed when the additional combat units return home, said Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, the chief of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In particular, U.S. troops are still needed to guard Iraqi prisons, he said.

“The transfer of responsibility for detention operations has not progressed as rapidly as we would like to the Iraqis, so there’s a need to have that force sustained, as well,” Ham said.

The war that keeps on going.