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kiwi
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« on: September 09, 2007, 08:56:01 PM » |
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WASHINGTON: The US commander in Iraq has told President George W. Bush that he wants to maintain heightened troop levels in Iraq well into next year but could accept the pullback of about 4000 troops beginning in January, The New York Times reported yesterday.
General David Petraeus wants to reduce the risk of military setbacks but his recommendation could also satisfy some critics in Congress, the newspaper said, citing senior administration and military officials.
General Petraeus "is worried about risk, and all things being equal he'd like to keep as much as he could for as long as he could," a senior military officer told The Times.
In congressional testimony next week, General Petraeus will discuss the possibility of far deeper withdrawals, over a period of months beyond January, that could bring levels down to about 130,000 troops, the newspaper reported, citing officials helping to prepare the testimony.
The officials said it was not clear how specific General Petraeus would be in discussing the timing of pullbacks in the public setting.
The report came as a new study called for the US to lower its footprint in Iraq and significantly reduce its forces to amend the impression among Iraqis that Americans are a permanent occupying force.
The advice emerged in the detail of a study, authored by a 20-member panel comprised mostly of retired senior military and police officers.
The panel said the Iraqis should assume more control of its security and US forces should step back, emboldening Democrats who want troop withdrawals to start this autumn. But the study warned it could be 18 months before Iraqi security forces were ready to take control of the country.
The recommendation to draw down echoed previous independent assessments on the war, including the high-profile Iraq Study Group that said the combat mission could be transferred to the Iraqis by early 2008.
Meanwhile, The Times reported Britain was risking a new foreign policy rift with the US after bluntly telling the Bush administration that it was "winning the battles but losing the war" in Afghanistan.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown feared the US remained "fixated" by Iraq and was failing to address what he regarded as the real front line in the war on terrorism, it said.
Disagreement between Britain and the US had surfaced already over the US military's desire to spray opium poppy fields from the air with herbicide, as well as to continue its bombing strikes on Afghan villages, which Britain said undermined its strategy of "winning hearts and minds".
Reuters, AP, The Times
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