Dec 18, 2008 9:20 am US/Mountain
Top U.S. General In Iraq Gives View Of Pullout
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
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Military officials said Thursday that Gen. Raymond Odierno envisions a gradual drawdown of the nearly 150,000 U.S. forces in Iraq to meet a deadline of full withdrawal of fighting forces before 2012. (File)
Mauricio Lima/AFP/Getty Images
The top U.S. general in Iraq has outlined for Pentagon leaders a withdrawal plan that would pull thousands more troops out of Iraq early next year, but move more cautiously than the 16-month timetable President-elect Barack Obama pledged during the campaign.
Military officials said Thursday that Gen. Raymond Odierno envisions a gradual drawdown of the nearly 150,000 U.S. forces in Iraq to meet a deadline of full withdrawal of fighting forces before 2012. That timetable is in synch with the three-year deadline set in a new security agreement signed with Baghdad. And it has the full support of Gen. David Petraeus, who has overall responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Odierno and his boss Petraeus described their proposal to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and the civilian heads of the armed services late last week, senior military officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Odierno's recommendations have not been made public.
Military officials described the recommendations as Odierno's exit strategy for Iraq stretching out through 2011, designed to meet the requirements of the security agreement, not Obama's campaign pledge to get combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months.
According to a senior military official, Odierno briefed Pentagon leaders on a range of issues on how to reach the withdrawal requirements by Dec. 31, 2011. But there have been no final decisions by Defense Secretary Robert Gates or the White House.
One official cautioned that Odierno's recommendations are preliminary, and could change under Obama.
"He laid out year by year milestones and plans for how he would meet that," the official said, based on the agreement "between Iraq and the current administration. If the next administration comes in Jan. 21 and lays out new national security goals, plans could be revamped."
Separately, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Gates discussed troop numbers and withdrawal options during a wide-ranging conversation with Odierno when the two met during Gates' surprise trip to Iraq last week.
"They had a good discussion about this proposal," Morrell said.
Gates and Mullen met with Obama in Chicago on Monday. Gates will continue in his job under Obama, and Mullen has said he also expects to stay on.
No officials would provide specifics of Odierno's recommendations, such as how many forces would be out by the end of next year.
The range of options would include a reduction in the more than 20,000 Marines currently serving in the western Anbar province -- a region that has seen a dramatic decline in violence.
Marine leaders have been repeatedly pressing to get out of Iraq and into Afghanistan -- a plan that Gates has indicated greater interest in lately than he had when the plan was presented months ago.
Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has told his troops that despite progress on both fronts, the U.S. and its allies face a tough fight in the year ahead.
With his trademark caution, Petraeus wrote in a letter to all troops in U.S. Central Command -- stretching across the Middle East and throughout Central Asia -- that improved security conditions in Iraq remain fragile and that while the Afghan army is improving, "the difficulties in Afghanistan are considerable."
It was the first time since Petraeus took charge of Central Command on Oct. 31, following 20 months as the top U.S. commander in Baghdad, that he has offered troops what he called "my initial assessment of the situation" not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in Pakistan and elsewhere in that region.
The letter, dated Dec. 9, was released by his office at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.
Petraeus has assembled a team of experts to conduct an in-depth and comprehensive review of his command area; it is expected to be completed by early February. His aides said that is separate from the "initial assessment" he offered in the letter to troops. The assessment was based on his own discussions and observations during extensive travels in the Middle East, Central Asia and elsewhere over the past few months.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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