US Military Looks to Reduce Role in Iraq

Members of the U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division listen as gunfire erupts during a joint operation with the Iraqi army in the town of Buhriz, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007. Although the spotlight is on Baghdad, fiercer battles are raging just 35 miles to the north, where U.S. and Iraqi forces are fighting a determined foe for control of a strategic province between the capital and the Iranian border. (AP Photo/Lauren Frayer)


US Military Looks to Reduce Role in Iraq
By ROBERT BURNS and LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Writers
The Associated Press
Published Tuesday | August 21, 2007


WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. military officials are narrowing the range of Iraq strategy options and appear to be focusing on reducing the U.S. combat role in 2008 while increasing training of Iraqi forces, a senior military official told The Associated Press on Monday.

The military has not yet developed a plan for a substantial withdrawal of forces next year. But officials are laying the groundwork for possible overtures to Turkey and Jordan on using their territory to move some troops and equipment out of Iraq, the official said. The main exit would remain Kuwait, but additional routes would make it easier and more secure for U.S. troops leaving western and northern Iraq.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because internal deliberations are ongoing, emphasized that the discussions do not prejudge decisions yet to be made by President Bush. Those decisions include how long to maintain the current U.S. troop buildup and when to make the transition to a larger Iraqi combat role.

It is widely anticipated that the five extra Army brigades that were sent to the Baghdad area this year will be withdrawn by late next summer. But it is far less clear whether the Bush administration will follow that immediately with additional drawdowns, as many Democrats in Congress are advocating.

Bush has mentioned publicly that he likes the idea, first proposed late last year by the Iraq Study Group, of switching the emphasis of U.S. military efforts from mainly combat to mainly support roles. But he also has said that this should not happen until Baghdad in particular is stable enough to enable Iraqi political leaders to make hard choices about reconciling rival interests among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

~snip~

Speaking on Monday to a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, Mo., Petraeus said Americans should not underestimate the efforts of the Iraqi army and police.


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either that or they have to completely change DoD doctrine for troop rotations and such.

Lost in all this talk about a surge and what not is the fact that they have no choice they screwed it up so bad that they have to start downsizing in April of next year. About the only people who don't know that is the American people because it dare not be spoken aloud.