US commander: Iraqis want US out as soon as
possible
Nine MSN (AU)
December 26, 2005
The top US military commander admitted Sunday that Iraqis wanted US and
other foreign troops to leave the country "as soon as possible," and said US
troop levels in Iraq were now being re-assessed on a monthly basis.
The admission by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Marine General Peter Pace
followed a decision by the Pentagon to reduce the current level of 160,000
soldiers in Iraq by two army brigades, which amounts to about 7,000
soldiers.
"Understandably, Iraqis themselves would prefer to have coalition forces
leave their country as soon as possible," Pace said in a Christmas Day
interview on Fox News Sunday. "They don't want us to leave tomorrow, but they
do want us to leave as soon as possible."
Some US foreign policy experts have expressed concern that a new Iraqi
government emerging from the December 15 parliamentary elections could ask
American troops to leave, but officials have dismissed that forecast as
unrealistic.
However, an opinion survey conducted in Iraq in October and November by ABC
News and a pool of other US and foreign media outlets showed that despite some
improvements in security and living standards, US military operations in the
country were increasingly unpopular.
Two-thirds of those polled said they opposed the presence of US and
coalition forces in Iraq, up 14 points from a similar survey taken in February
2004.
Nearly 60 percent disapproved of the way the United States has operated in
Iraq since the war began in March 2003, with most of those expressing "strong
disapproval," the poll found.
When asked to suggest a timing for the US pullout, 26 percent said US and
other coalition forces should "leave now," while 19 percent opted for a
withdrawal after the Iraqis formed a new government based on the results on the
December 15 election.
Among those who support a delayed pullout, 31 percent said it should happen
after security is fully restored, while 16 percent favored waiting until Iraqi
security forces can operate independently, according to the survey.
Pace denied the US Defense Department had prepared a plan that calls for
bringing the US troop level in Iraq below 100,000 by the end of next year.
But he said force requirements in Iraq are being regularly assessed by the
top US military commander there, General George Casey.
"They do a very, very thorough analysis, literally once a month, in great
detail," Pace said. "They then determine how many troops they need to get the
job done."
But the chairman warned that "the enemy has a vote" in how fast US troops
were being drawn down, and if attacks intensified, "you could see troop levels
go up a little bit to handle that problem."
Two US soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Christmas Day by roadside bombs,
the military announced.
In a move largely interpreted as the beginning of a gradual drawdown of US
forces in Iraq, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced last week that
one infantry brigade from Fort Riley, Kansas, and one mechanised brigade from
Germany will not be sent to Iraq as initially planned.
The decision will reduce the number of US combat brigades in Iraq from 17 to
15.
Meanwhile former secretary of state Colin Powell, who headed the joint staff
during the 1991 Gulf War, said Sunday he was certain there would be fewer US
troops in Iraq a year from now.
"I don't think we can sustain this level of presence with the force size
that we have," he said on ABC's "This Week" program.
To maintain the pre-election "baseline" of 138,000 troops in Iraq, the US
military will have to dramatically overhaul rules governing deployments of the
National Guard, whose members make up to 40 percent of the contingent.
Such an undertaking could be politically unrealistic, according to members
of congress.
Whereas, according to recent polls, over 80 percent of the
Iraqi people want U.S. forces out of Iraq;
Section 1. The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of
Congress, is hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at
the earliest practicable date.
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