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thedrifter
12-09-06, 06:45 AM
December 08, 2006
Military has done all it can in Iraq, general says

By Gordon Lubold
Staff writer

There is little more the U.S. military can do to stabilize Iraq, the top U.S. ground commander there said Friday.

Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of Multi-National Corps – Iraq, continues to work to help the Iraqis assume control of their country and is looking at ways to increase the number of U.S. trainers embedded with Iraqi forces. But beyond that, Chiarelli, echoing a recurring theme these days, said there is little else for the U.S. military to do to get Iraq standing on its own two feet.

“I happen to believe we have done everything militarily that we possibly can,” Chiarelli told reporters by video teleconference.

The U.S. must “get out of thinking” of the war in Iraq as solely a military conflict in which a viable solution is to add more forces to fight the insurgency that is still wracking large parts of the country.

Chiarelli, nearing the end of a second 12-month tour in Iraq, said the focus must be on political reconciliation between the warring Sunnis and Shiites, as well as economic rehabilitation.

He said every time he meets with local Iraqi leaders, he is struck by their desire to “put angry young men to work.”

Asked at the end of his briefing if the U.S. is winning in Iraq, Chiarelli joked that he had hoped to avoid the question. He then said the U.S. is indeed winning “militarily,” but acknowledged the U.S. has been too slow to achieve its strategic objectives in Iraq.

His comments echoed the remarks of other senior leaders recently. Incoming Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this week that the U.S. is not winning in Iraq, and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said the U.S. is “not winning, but not losing.”

Ellie