Monday, March 12, 2007
U.S. to withdraw troops if surge fails
Security
(The Guardian) The United States has begun planning to gradually withdraw combat soldiers from Iraq and place a greater emphasis on training if the current troop increase fails, it was reported today. The Los Angeles Times said the fallback strategy, based partly on the US experience in El Salvador in the 1980s, was in the early planning stages. A Pentagon official told the paper: "This part of the world has an allergy against foreign presence. You have a window of opportunity that is relatively short. Your ability to influence this with a large US force eventually gets to a point that is self-defeating."
The LA Times report came as the president, George Bush, confirmed at the weekend that he would send an extra 4,700 combat support troops and military police to Iraq in addition to the "surge" of 21,500 combat forces announced in January. Mr Bush is also sending an extra 3,500 troops to Afghanistan in expectation of increased fighting in spring.
A whittling down of the US military presence would fit in with comments made to Congress by the defence secretary, Robert Gates, last month. He said that if the "surge" failed, the fallback plan would include moving troops "out of harm's way". Such a plan would also come close to the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which included Mr Gates before his appointment as the defence secretary. The US has about 141,000 US troops in Iraq and the current buildup will add 21,500 combat soldiers and several thousand more support troops as part of a new strategy to deprive safe havens for insurgents.
The plan is being implemented by General David Petraeus, the new US commander for Iraq and a counterinsurgency expert who won praise for his record in Mosul, northern Iraq, at the start of the 2003 war.
But even his supporters admit that Gen Petraeus has only about six months to improve the situation, particularly to reduce the level of sectarian killing in Baghdad.
A whittling down of the US military presence would fit in with comments made to Congress by the defence secretary, Robert Gates, last month. He said that if the "surge" failed, the fallback plan would include moving troops "out of harm's way". Such a plan would also come close to the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which included Mr Gates before his appointment as the defence secretary. The US has about 141,000 US troops in Iraq and the current buildup will add 21,500 combat soldiers and several thousand more support troops as part of a new strategy to deprive safe havens for insurgents.
The plan is being implemented by General David Petraeus, the new US commander for Iraq and a counterinsurgency expert who won praise for his record in Mosul, northern Iraq, at the start of the 2003 war.
But even his supporters admit that Gen Petraeus has only about six months to improve the situation, particularly to reduce the level of sectarian killing in Baghdad.
Labels: General David Petraeus, troop surge, troop withdrawal, U.S.
