The Los Angeles Times reports “Top U.S. military brass in Iraq resist quick drawdown”:
The U.S. military’s internal debate over how fast to reduce its force in Iraq has intensified in recent weeks as commanders in Baghdad resist suggestions from Pentagon officials for a quicker drawdown. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day military commander in Iraq, said he was worried that significant improvements in security conditions would sway policymakers to move too quickly to pull out troops next year. “The most important thing to me is we cannot lose what we have gained,” Odierno said in an interview last week with The Times after he toured Nahrawan, a predominantly Shiite city of about 100,000 northeast of Baghdad with a market that is now showing signs of life. “We won’t do that.” Some Pentagon officials believe a cut from 166,000 troops in Iraq to about 100,000 or fewer is necessary to relieve strain on the Army worldwide. Other military officials contend that a smaller force here would make the issue of the Iraq war less urgent, and that the next administration could therefore be less likely to force a withdrawal of all remaining troops…. In the interview, Odierno warned against making a sharp cut without ensuring that Iraqi institutions are strong enough to handle security and governance on their own. He said drawdown decisions should be left to the overall commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus. Military officials in Baghdad believe the stress on the Army and the Marine Corps should not influence the decisions on how many troops to keep in Iraq. Otherwise, Odierno said, the United States could see a repeat of last year’s staged withdrawals, which came even as violence escalated in Iraq. In September, Petraeus announced a plan to return the U.S. force to roughly the size it was before the buildup began in January. Under that scenario, five brigades would be withdrawn by July, cutting the force to 15 brigades, or about 130,000 troops. “The issue becomes the next step after July,” Odierno said. “You’ve got to allow Gen. Petraeus to look at the conditions and make a decision to go further down. I’m worried that if we try to do it too quickly and we claim victory, we will move backwards.”
Clearly different commanders have different concerns. In Iraq, the concern is winning the war, back here in Washington, commanders at the Pentagon must worry about readiness and maintaining the capacity of the Army and Marine Corps for any potential conflict. Such concerns need to be taken into account, but as a matter of priorities, it seems foolish to put the stress on the Army and Marine Corps ahead of achieving security, and victory, in Iraq.
