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U.S. Troops to stay in Iraq until 2010:
Army
12.10.2006 |
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WASHINGTON,
October 11 - For planning purposes, the Army is
gearing up to keep current troop levels in Iraq for
another four years, a new indication that conditions
there are too unstable to foresee an end to the war.
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff,
cautioned against reading too much into the
planning, which is done far in advance to prepare
the right mix of combat units for expected
deployments. He noted that it is easier to scale
back later if conditions allow, than to ramp up if
they don't.
"This is not a prediction that things are going
poorly or better," Schoomaker told reporters. "It's
just that I have to have enough ammo in the magazine
that I can continue to shoot as long as they want us
to shoot."
Even so, his comments were the latest acknowledgment
by Pentagon officials that a significant withdrawal
of troops from Iraq is not likely in the immediate
future. There are now 141,000 U.S. troops there. |
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (R) speaks
alongside General George Casey, Commander of the
Multi-national force in Iraq, during a press
briefing at the Pentagon in Washington October 11,
2006.
Photp:Reuters |
At a Pentagon news conference, the top U.S.
commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, said that as
recently as July he had expected to be able to
recommend a substantial reduction in U.S. forces by
now. But that plan was dropped as sectarian violence
in Baghdad escalated.
While arguing that progress is still being made
toward unifying Iraq's fractured political rivalries
and stabilizing the country, Casey also said the
violence amounts to "a difficult situation that's
likely to remain that way for some time."
He made no predictions of future U.S. troop
reductions.
Appearing with Casey, Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld said he and other senior Pentagon officials
are still studying how the military might keep up
the current pace of Iraq deployments without
overtaxing the Army and Marine Corps, which have
borne the brunt of the conflict. Rumsfeld said one
option is to make more use of the Air Force and Navy
for work that normally is done by soldiers and
Marines.
Sen. Jack Reed (news, bio, voting record), D-R.I., a
member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said
Wednesday that the advance planning Schoomaker
described was an appropriate cautionary approach.
However, he added, the Pentagon should increase the
overall size of the military to reduce stress on
troops repeatedly sent into combat.
"I applaud the new realism but I think they also
have to recognize that this (war) is going to put a
huge stress on our forces," said Reed, a former Army
Ranger. Reed and other Democrats have called on
President Bush to start bringing home troops within
a year to force the Iraqi government to take more
responsibility for security.
At his news conference, Rumsfeld was asked whether
he bears responsibility for what has gone wrong in
Iraq or if the military commanders there are to
blame.
"Of course I bear responsibility," he replied in
apparent exasperation. "My Lord, I'm secretary of
defense. Write it down."
In recent months the Army has shown signs of strain,
as Pentagon officials have had to extend the Iraq
deployments of two brigades to bolster security in
Baghdad and allow units heading into the country to
have at least one year at home before redeploying.
The Army is finding that the amount of time soldiers
enjoy between Iraq tours has been shrinking this
year. In the case of a brigade of the 3rd Infantry
Division, its deployment to Iraq was delayed by
about six weeks because it otherwise would have had
only 11 months to prepare instead of the minimum 12
months. As a result, the unit it was going to
replace has been forced to stay beyond its normal
12-month deployment.
In separate remarks to reporters, Gen. Richard Cody,
the Army vice chief of staff, said soldiers need
more than 12 months between deployments to Iraq so
they can do a full range of combat training and
complete the kinds of educational programs that
enable the Army to grow a fully mature officer
corps.
That kind of noncombat experience is necessary "so
that we don't erode and become an Army that only can
fight a counterinsurgency," Cody said. He added that
North Korea's announced nuclear test "reminds us all
that we may not just be in a counterinsurgency fight
and we have to have full-spectrum capability."
AP
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