May
31, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- President Bush envisions a
long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq similar to the
one in South Korea where American forces have helped
keep an uneasy peace for more than 50 years, the
White House said Wednesday.
The comparison was offered as the Pentagon announced
the completion of the troop buildup ordered by Bush
in January. The last of about 21,500 combat troops
to arrive were an Army brigade in Baghdad and a
Marine unit heading into the Anbar province in
western Iraq.
Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins, deputy director of
operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there
are now 20 combat brigades in Iraq, up from 15 when
the buildup began. A brigade is roughly 3,500
troops. Overall, the Pentagon said there are 150,000
U.S. troops in Iraq. That number may still climb as
more support troops move in. |
U.S. President George W. Bush J. Photo:White House |
|
The administration warns that the buildup will
result in more U.S. casualties as more American
soldiers come into contact with enemy forces. May
already is the third bloodiest month since the war
began in March 2003. As of late Tuesday, there were
116 U.S. deaths in Iraq so far in May — trailing
only the 137 in November 2004 and the 135 in April
2004. Overall, more than 3,460 U.S. service members
have died.
Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said Bush has cited
the long-term Korea analogy in looking at the U.S.
role in Iraq, where American forces are in the fifth
year of an unpopular war. Bush's goal is for Iraqi
forces to take over the chief security
responsibilities, relieving U.S. forces of frontline
combat duty, Snow said.
"I think the point he's trying to make is that the
situation in Iraq, and indeed, the larger war on
terror, are things that are going to take a long
time," Snow said. "But it is not always going to
require an up-front combat presence."
Instead, he said, U.S. troops would provide "the
so-called over-the-horizon support that is necessary
from time to time to come to the assistance of the
Iraqis. But you do not want the United States
forever in the front."
The comparison with South Korea paints a picture of
a lengthy U.S. commitment at a time when Americans
have grown weary of the Iraq war and want U.S.
troops to start coming home. Bush vetoed legislation
that would set timetables for U.S. troop
withdrawals, and forced Congress to approve a new
bill stripped of troop pullout language.
Asked if U.S. forces would be permanently stationed
in Iraq, Snow said, "No, not necessarily." He said
that the prospect of permanent U.S. bases in Iraq
were "not necessarily the case, either."
Later, Snow said it was impossible to say if U.S.
troops would remain in Iraq for some 50 years, as
they have in South Korea. "I don't know," he said.
"It is an unanswerable question. But I'm not making
that suggestion. ... The war on terror is a long
war."
South Korea is just one example of U.S. troops
stationed more than a half-century after war.
Germany and Japan are two other examples. American
forces are deployed in roughly 130 countries around
the world, performing a variety of duties from
combat to peacekeeping to training foreign
militaries, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a
defense-oriented think tank.
In South Korea, about 29,500 U.S. troops are
stationed as a deterrent against the communist
North, but that number is to decline to 24,500 by
2008 as part of the Pentagon's worldwide realignment
of its forces. The two Koreas remain technically at
war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a
cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the
Middle East, seemed a surprising choice when he got
the job earlier this year, yet his experience as
U.S. commander in the Pacific overseeing the Korean
peninsula would serve him well if the U.S. military
adopts a Korea model in Iraq.
AP
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