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thedrifter
03-01-09, 07:05 AM
Newsday.com
Field commanders influenced Obama's withdrawal plan

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 1, 2009

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama leaned heavily toward field commanders' preferences in settling a time frame for ending the war in Iraq.

"To this very day, there are some Americans who want to stay in Iraq longer, and some who want to leave faster," Obama said in making the announcement Friday, summing up a debate that has divided the country like no other since the former President George W. Bush launched the U.S. invasion six years ago.

At stake was the promise that most defined and drove Obama's presidential bid: to bring combat troops home - effectively, to end the war - 16 months after taking office.

The details he unveiled Friday before hundreds of Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., depart from that pledge in several ways:

The combat withdrawal will take three months longer than he promised. It is now be to completed by the end of August 2010.

The withdrawal will not happen at an even pace of one combat brigade per month, as he had repeatedly said. Instead, it will be backloaded, so that the force posture for this year and into the first few months of 2010 likely will be essentially the same as it would have been under Bush.

Even after the combat drawdown, a force of as many as 50,000 troops will remain.

Understanding how Obama, his aides and his generals came to this plan must start with how the candidate arrived at his campaign promise.

In the words of one administration official, there was never any magic to the 16-months time frame. At the time Obama first made the pledge, there were around 16 combat brigades in Iraq, and military experts told him Iraq was too fragile for a drawdown much faster than one combat brigade per month.

As early as last July, Obama gave the military leadership a strong signal that they could influence his thinking.

During a trip to Baghdad, Obama assured Gen. David Petraeus - then the top U.S. commander there - he would do nothing if elected to endanger security gains in Iraq, according to a U.S. official.

When he took office, Obama directed the Defense Department to start planning for "a responsible military drawdown." Also that first week, he gathered top national security advisers.

A week later, he made his first trip to the Pentagon to see the chairman and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all four uniformed service chiefs.

Multiple discussions with field commanders followed, as well as with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gates and Mullen presented Obama with three withdrawal options: one following his 16-month promise, one for a 19-month phaseout and another that stretched it over 23 months.

The pivotal day was last Saturday, at a National Security Council meeting. Three days later, Obama met with Gates and met again on Wednesday with Mullen. It was then that Obama formally accepted the 19-month option.

Ellie