Monday, June 11, 2007
Major U.S. troop withdrawal planned for early 2009
Security
(AFP) -- The White House has backed an eventual withdrawal of most US troops from Iraq after a report said detailed plans are afoot to retain a smaller military presence in the war-torn country for years. The Washington Post said US military officials were in early planning for a "sharp drawdown" of troops beginning by the middle of next year.
President George W. Bush's spokesman, Tony Snow, declined to confirm or deny the report but said the immediate onus was on Iraqi authorities to end political discord and insurgent violence. The Post said roughly two-thirds of the current force would leave Iraq by late next year or early 2009, and officials are grappling over the shape and size of a "post-occupation" presence that would last "for years."
"At some point certainly we do want to be in a position to be able to pull back," Mr Snow told CBS television, while stressing "that anything that happens on the ground is going to be in response to conditions on the ground." US forces could remain as a rapid-response back-up for "Iraqis handling all the front-line business" of security, the spokesman said.
But Iraqi authorities must also "develop the political basis that is going to encourage people to see themselves as part of an Iraqi government and to co-operate in going after insurgents and foreign fighters and others who are trying to blow up the democracy, literally and figuratively."
President George W. Bush's spokesman, Tony Snow, declined to confirm or deny the report but said the immediate onus was on Iraqi authorities to end political discord and insurgent violence. The Post said roughly two-thirds of the current force would leave Iraq by late next year or early 2009, and officials are grappling over the shape and size of a "post-occupation" presence that would last "for years."
"At some point certainly we do want to be in a position to be able to pull back," Mr Snow told CBS television, while stressing "that anything that happens on the ground is going to be in response to conditions on the ground." US forces could remain as a rapid-response back-up for "Iraqis handling all the front-line business" of security, the spokesman said.
But Iraqi authorities must also "develop the political basis that is going to encourage people to see themselves as part of an Iraqi government and to co-operate in going after insurgents and foreign fighters and others who are trying to blow up the democracy, literally and figuratively."
Labels: Tony Snow, U.S. troop withdrawal
