PDA

View Full Version : US panel to recommend troop withdrawal from Iraq: report



thedrifter
11-30-06, 08:07 AM
US panel to recommend troop withdrawal from Iraq: report

by Stephen Collinson
Thu Nov 30, 3:07 AM ET

An independent commission will call on President George W. Bush to order a measured withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, media reported amid mounting frustration at violence in the country.

As Bush met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Jordan, debate raged in the United States over whether the conflict should be called a civil war and the Pentagon ordered more troops into Baghdad.

The 10-member Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former secretary of state James Baker, said it would reveal its much-awaited findings on December 6.

But the New York Times reported that the panel agreed to recommend withdrawing 15 US combat brigades in Iraq -- the bulk of the US fighting presence -- but leaving 70,000 or more American trainers, logistics experts and members of a rapid reaction force.

The group did not say where the troops would go, and did not present a withdrawal timetable, which Bush has opposed. But it made clear that the US military commitment should not be open-ended.

The panel could be a major chance for Bush to overhaul his policy as Iraq slips towards chaos and demands mount to bring US troops home. The recommendations are nonbinding.

New US anxiety over the failure of Iraqi to crack down on Shiite militias surfaced in a memo by national security advisor Stephen Hadley, which the New York Times published Wednesday.

The memo said "reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action."

Bush administration aides said the memo had nothing to do with Maliki's failure to appear at a planned three-way meeting Wednesday also including Bush and King Abdullah II.

US military commanders said they were moving about 1,600 US troops to Baghdad in a bid to stem sectarian violence in the Iraqi capital.

General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US commanders were sharing ideas with Maliki on where troops could come from to reinforce Baghdad.

But he denied a report that US officials were considering turning over volatile al-Anbar province to Iraqi security forces and using the marines from there to reinforce Baghdad.

Controversy over how to refer to the raging violence in Iraq raged on meanwhile, as Democrat Senator Jack Reed said a "low level civil war" had been going on for months.

Hoping to stop a further slump in US public support for the Iraq war, Bush and his aides have refused to use the term, even though two US media outlets have now decided to use it.

Anthony Cordesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said that the conflict could only be called civil war.

"If you can find a dictionary whose definition of civil war does not describe this situation as a civil war, I would like to know what it is," he said, as he unveiled a damning report into deteriorating conditions in Iraq.

As expectations rose for the Iraq Study Group report, focus also turned to the US showdown with Iran, amid speculation Baker's group will recommend talking directly to the US foe, in a bid to ease conditions in Iraq.

In a letter to the American people issued Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a scathing attack on Bush and urged a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

"Now that Iraq has a constitution and an independent assembly and government, would it not be more beneficial to bring the US officers and soldiers home and to spend the astronomical US military expenditures in Iraq for the welfare and prosperity of the American people?" the Iranian leader said in the letter.

In Washington, the State Department dismissed the letter as "a public relations stunt.

"I think my initial reaction to you is that there's really not a lot new here," spokesman Tom Casey said.

The Times report came as South Korea's government announced it was pulling all of its 2,300 troops out of Iraq by the end of 2007.

Seoul has the third largest foreign contingent in Iraq after the United States and Britain. On Tuesday they agreed to halve its troop deployment to 1,200 next April.

Earlier in the week Britain said it expected to withdraw thousands of its 7,100 troops from Iraq also by the end of 2007.

Poland has said it will pull its 880 soldiers out by late next year, while Italy has said its 60 to 70 remaining troops would be withdrawn by the end of the week.

The United States provides the vast majority of the total 160,000-strong multinational force.