The top U.S. commander in Iraq predicted Tuesday that Iraqi forces will be able to fend for themselves in 12 to 18 months, allowing for a significant reduction of U.S. forces.
“It’s going to take another 12 to 18 months or so until I believe the Iraqi security forces are completely capable of taking over responsibility for their own security,” Gen. George Casey told reporters in Baghdad. “Still probably with some level of support from us, but that will be asked for by the Iraqis.”
He added: “We need to continue to reduce our forces as the Iraqis continue to improve because we need to get out of their way.”
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who has long called for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, pointed out that Tuesday’s announcement came “two weeks before the election.”
“There’s no question this is politically motivated,” he told MSNBC. “They’re finally coming around to what I said a year ago.”
Murtha said the Bush administration is belatedly advocating a timeline for withdrawal after months of criticizing Democrats who did so.
“When anybody who said there was supposed to be a timeline, they demonized that person,” he said. “They called it ‘cut and run,’ and now they’re saying that within 12 to 18 months” U.S. forces inIraq will be reduced.
But Casey made clear any reduction in U.S. forces will be predicated on Iraq’s ability to defend itself. He acknowledged that a previous plan for troop reductions was scrapped in order to fight a rising insurgency in Baghdad.
“I said a year or so ago that if the conditions on the ground continued the way they were going, that I thought we’d have fairly substantial reductions in coalition force Casey said. “I reversed what I was doing and recommitted these forces here, and they’ve had a very decisive impact on what’s going on here in Baghdad.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was skeptical.
“This is the ninth time we’ve been told of a new plan on Iraqization so why should the American people believe, two weeks before an election, that this latest vague plan is going to lead to any change at all?” he said. “We’ve been hearing White House promises to turn things over to the Iraqi forces for years — in 2006, in 2005, in 2004, in 2003 — but nothing ever seems to change.”
