Bringing the troops home...

Reduction in U.S. Troops Eyed for '04
Gradual Exit Strategy Tied to Iraq's Stability
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 19, 2003; Page A01
U.S. military commanders have developed a plan to steadily cut back troop levels in Iraq next year, several senior Army officers said in recent interviews.
There are now 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The plan to cut that number is well advanced and has been described in broad outline to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld but has not yet been approved by him. It would begin to draw down forces next spring, cutting the number of troops to fewer than 100,000 by next summer and then to 50,000 by mid-2005, officers involved in the planning said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46852-2003Oct18?language=printer

Secret Washington plan to establish six permanent US, UK military bases in Iraq
by DI Tuesday November 25, 2003 at 02:59 PM
Al-Arab Al-Yawm's correspondent Ahmad Sabri reports from Baghdad that sources close to the Interim Governing Council of Iraq have told al-Arab al-Yawm in Baghdad that the new US strategy in Iraq which Paul Bremer brought back to the Council members from Washington has not yet been revealed in its entirety.
The reliable sources say that there are clauses in the agreement that are to remain secret until an appropriate time comes for their publication
The sources revealed that the most important of these secret clauses in the document -- which the Council announced after meeting Bremer at the beginning of this week -- provide for the establishment of at least six military bases in different parts of Iraq in which American forces will be concentrated on a permanent basis in order to guarantee a continued American and British presence in accordance with the strategy that brought their fleets to these hot waters in the first place.
The sources say that a number of strategic positions have been chosen with precision in various parts of Iraq to be the locations of American and British bases during the second phase of the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq.

Chicago Tribune March 23, 2004
14 `enduring bases' set in Iraq
Long-term military presence planned
In-Depth Coverage
By Christine Spolar
Dollar figures have not been released. The Defense Department plans to build the bases under its own contracts separate from the State Department and its Embassy in Baghdad.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the head of coalition forces in Iraq, recently outlined a plan that would slice the current Coalition Provisional Authority into pieces after sovereignty is returned to Iraqis at the end of June.
The U.S. Embassy would absorb some coalition workers as Embassy personnel; the Defense Department would take others. Its workers would direct most of the major contracts connected to the $18 billion allocated for Iraq reconstruction, military planners said.
The Program Management Office, the agency that has been doling out the cash, will remain under the Defense Department.
"It was a significant win," one military planner said. "In terms of controlling the money, Defense is in control."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040323-enduring-bases.htm

India News Sun, May 30, 2004
U.S. troop presence sparks Shi'ite fury beyond Iraq
MANAMA (Reuters) - Shi'ite Muslims took to the streets in three Middle Eastern capitals on Friday in sometimes violent protests against the U.S. military presence in Iraq's Shi'ite shrine cities, witnesses said.
U.S.-led forces have been battling followers of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in and around Najaf and Kerbala.
U.S. forces have vowed to capture or kill Sadr, who has taken refuge in Najaf since launching an anti-U.S. uprising in April. Sadr's Mehdi Army militiamen have clashed daily with U.S. troops near the shrines in Najaf and Kerbala.http://in.news.yahoo.com/040521/137/2d8ka.html

Last Update: Sunday, June 27, 2004. 6:32pm (AEST)
Iraq attack 'shows troops must stay'
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson says an attack on Australian forces in northern Iraq this weekend is another reminder that Australia must keep its troops in Iraq.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200406/s1141382.htm

Iranian Concern about American Troop Presence in Iraq 'Unwarranted,' says US
David Gollust, VOA, State Department - 19 Aug 2004
The United States said Thursday Iran should see the American military presence in Iraq as a stabilizing, rather than threatening presence. The comments followed remarks by Iran's Defense Minister that some Iranian generals favor striking U.S. forces pre-emptively if they sensed a threat.
------------
State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereliaid said U.S. troops are part of a multinational force, in Iraq at the invitation of the country's interim government and pursuant to U.N. Security Council resolutions. He said they are present to help support the stability and security of Iraq so there is "no cause" to see them as a threat.

"Our view is, and we've stated it quite often, is that far from seeing them as threatening, they should be seen as stabilizing," he said. "And Iraq's neighbors have an interest in joining with all of us working in Iraq to insure that those trying to unsettle, destabilize or otherwise work against the government of Iraq are defeated."
http://www.payvand.com/news/04/aug/1190.html

Commander Sees Shift In Role of U.S. Troops
Force Would Focus On Training Iraqis
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A01
CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar, Dec. 6 -- Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region, raised the possibility Monday that U.S. forces in Iraq could start to be reshaped as early as next year to reduce the number of combat troops and concentrate on the development of Iraqi security forces.

Bush faults Iraqi forces
He acknowledges mixed results from U.S. training
David E. Sanger, Richard W. Stevenson, New York Times
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
(12-21) 04:00 PST Washington -- President Bush acknowledged on Monday that, 20 months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the United States has encountered only "mixed" success in training Iraqi troops to secure the country and that it was "unacceptable" that some Iraqi units had fled as soon as they faced hostile fire.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/21/MNGQCAF5F41.DTL

The Boston Globe
House report proposes troop withdrawal plan

(Usmc Photo)
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | January 22, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A new congressional report lays out a step-by-step argument for withdrawing ''the vast majority" of American troops from Iraq within 12 to 18 months, adding to a growing chorus of members of both parties for President Bush to abort the occupation.
The report, scheduled to be released Tuesday, was drafted by Representative Martin T. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat and senior member of the oversight panel. The plan calls for reducing the American troop presence in Iraq from 150,000 to as few as 30,000 by the middle of next year.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/01/22/house_report_proposes_troop_withdrawal_plan/

Posted 3/28/2005 8:33 PM Updated 3/28/2005 8:39 PM
Iraqi troop training: signs of progress
By Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor
Due to missteps and a misjudgment about the strength of the insurgency at its onset, the U.S. really did not begin a concerted training effort until 10 months ago, said Cordesman. "The Iraqis actually involved in shaping Iraq's new forces are not pessimistic," he noted. "Most believe that Iraqi forces are growing steadily better with time, will acquire the experience and quality to deal with much of the insurgency during 2005, and should be able to secure much of the country by 2006."
Enough progress has apparently been made that U.S. officials are becoming more explicit about when American troops might start coming home. On Sunday, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Army Gen. George Casey, predicted on CNN's "Late Edition" that the U.S. should be able to make a "very substantial reduction" in the number of forces within a year.
Copyright c 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-03-28-Iraqi-troops-progress_x.htm

U.S. army commander predicts reduction of Iraq troops
3/28/2005 12:20:00 PM GMT
General Casey predicts "very substantial reductions" in U.S. troops in Iraq will be made.
The top U.S. military commander in Iraq predicted Sunday that the U.S. would make "very substantial reductions" in the number of troops there by March 2006.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7643

House Passes Inslee Amendment to Lift Funding Limit on Iraqi Troop Training
Accelerates Replacement of American Troops with Iraqi Security Forces
20 June 2005
In an effort to bring American troops home sooner, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee offered and successfully passed an amendment today to help fully fund the training and equipping of Iraqi and Afghan troops. Inslee's amendment removes the $500 million cap that had been placed in the Department of Defense (DOD) Appropriations Act to train, equip and provide assistance to security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The DOD bill includes $45.3 billion for military operations in Iraq, yet placed limitations on the amount of money that could be spent on training a viable Iraqi security force. The House passed Inslee's amendment by a voice vote, without any objections.
http://www.house.gov/inslee/issues/iraq/iraq_troop_training.html

Posted 7/11/2005 6:24 PM Updated 7/11/2005 8:19 PM
U.S. may begin Iraq troop drawdown in '06
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Major reductions in U.S. troop levels in Iraq next year appear increasingly likely, although Pentagon officials said Monday it is too early to predict the specific size and timing.
Michael O'Hanlon, a defense specialist at the Brookings Institution think tank, said the training of Iraqi forces has progressed to the point when they will be capable of taking on a greater part of the responsibility.
O'Hanlon said he is hopeful that the 135,000-strong U.S. force could be cut by as much as 50% by mid-2006.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-07-11-troops-iraq_x.htm

Drastic troop cuts are in the Pentagon's secret plans.
Defense decision: Casey and Rumsfeld look to scale down the number of U.S. troops in Iraq
By Michael Hirsh and John Barry
Newsweek
Aug. 8, 2005 issue - Donald Rumsfeld doesn't like long-term occupations. He's always made that clear. After U.S. forces took Baghdad, the Defense secretary had plans to reduce the U.S. presence in Iraq to 40,000 troops by the fall of 2003. Then the insurgency struck. Now Rumsfeld is quietly moving toward his original goal_three years late. The Pentagon has developed a detailed plan in recent months to scale down the U.S. troop presence in Iraq to about 80,000 by mid-2006 and down to 40,000 to 60,000 troops by the end of that year, according to two Pentagon officials involved in the planning who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of their work. Their account squares with a British memo leaked in mid-July. "Emerging U.S. plans assume that 14 out of 18 provinces could be handed over to Iraqi control by early 2006, allowing a reduction in overall U.S. and Coalition forces from 176,000 down to 66,000," says the Ministry of Defense memo.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8770418/site/newsweek /

All Things Considered, September 29, 2005 · Top U.S. military commanders are revising assessments of how soon U.S. troops can begin withdrawing from Iraq. Gen. George Casey said before a skeptical Senate Armed Services Committee that U.S. troops may be able to return home next year. But he also said there is currently just one Iraqi battalion capable of combat.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4929645

Huge Progress" Made In Training Iraq Troops : US General
Washington (AFP) Nov 07, 2005
"Huge progress" is being made in training Iraqi combat troops, and 24 homegrown battalions have now taken control of assigned territory, the general formerly in charge of the massive program said Monday.
Petraeus said that according to latest declassified figures, 40 battalions of Iraqi soldiers were capable of leading counter insurgency operations with the help of US or coalition troops.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-03-28-Iraq...

Defense official: Rumsfeld given Iraq withdrawal plan
Plan calls for troops to begin pulling out after December elections
Saturday, November 19, 2005 Posted: 0434 GMT
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top U.S. commander in Iraq has submitted a plan to the Pentagon for withdrawing troops in Iraq, according to a senior defense official.
Gen. George Casey submitted the plan to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It includes numerous options and recommends that brigades -- usually made up of about 2,000 soldiers each -- begin pulling out of Iraq early next year
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/18/iraq.plan/index.html

Officials more hopeful on Iraq draw down
Posted 11/24/2005 12:19 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Bush administration and military leaders are sounding optimistic notes about scaling back U.S. troops in Iraq next year, as public opposition to the war and congressional demands for withdrawal get louder.
Lt. Gen. John Vines, chief of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, said Iraqi security forces _ which number about 212,000 now _ are making excellent progress, an oft-cited precondition for removing U.S. troops. He said 36 Iraqi battalions are responsible for their own areas of operation.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-24-admi...

White House lays foundation for US troop withdrawal
Monday November 28, 2005 3:20 AM
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House for the first time has claimed possession of an Iraq withdrawal plan, arguing that a troop pullout blueprint unveiled this past week by a Democratic senator was "remarkably similar" to its own.
It also signaled its acceptance of a recent US Senate amendment designed to pave the way for a phased US military withdrawal from the violence-torn country.
The statement late Saturday by White House spokesman Scott McClellan came in response to a commentary published in The Washington Post by Joseph Biden, the top Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which he said US forces will begin leaving Iraq next year "in large numbers."
Copyright c 2005 AFP.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/051127/afp/051127192003top.html

Friday, December 23, 2005; Posted: 2:13 p.m. EST (19:13 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- President Bush has authorized a reduction in U.S. combat troops in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday, talking before troops at Camp Falluja, Iraq.
"At the recommendation of our military commanders and in consultation with our coalition partners and with the Iraqi government, President Bush has authorized an adjustment in U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from 17 to 15," Rumsfeld told 400 to 500 U.S. troops.
The adjustments will reduce forces in Iraq below the base-line level of 138,000 -- which has provided the guideline for most of the year -- by spring 2006. There were 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq as elections approached, Rumsfeld said.
About 3,500 soldiers are in each brigade, the statement said.
This adjustment is an indication of the remarkable progress Iraq is making," the statement said. "It clearly demonstrates the dramatic increase in capabilities of the Iraqi security forces. This move would not have been possible without the dedication, bravery and sacrifice of your Iraqi security forces."
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/23/iraq.main/index.html

Extended presence of U.S. in Iraq looms large
$1 billion for construction of American military bases and no public plans

The swimming pool at Balad air base, as seen through the window of a Black Hawk helicopter, 44 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, on Aug. 25, 2005.
Updated: 9:11 a.m. ET March 21, 2006
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq - The concrete goes on forever, vanishing into the noonday glare, 2 million cubic feet of it, a mile-long slab that's now the home of up to 120 U.S. helicopters, a "heli-park" as good as any back in the States.
At another giant base, al-Asad in Iraq's western desert, the 17,000 troops and workers come and go in a kind of bustling American town, with a Burger King, Pizza Hut and a car dealership, stop signs, traffic regulations and young bikers clogging the roads.
At a third hub down south, Tallil, they're planning a new mess hall, one that will seat 6,000 hungry airmen and soldiers for chow
Are the Americans here to stay? Air Force mechanic Josh Remy is sure of it as he looks around
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11072377

Legislation Bans Funding for Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq
For immediate release - September 29, 2006
Washington... President Bush today signed legislation that bars funding to construct permanent military bases in Iraq, and states definitively that it is the policy of the United States government not to exercise control over Iraq's petroleum resources. The new legislative language, contained in the military appropriations bill signed by president Bush today, marks the first time the government has ruled out an indefinite military presence in Iraq, as the administration had previously worked to retain the option of establishing permanent bases.."
http://www.fcnl.org/press/releases/iraq_bases_signed092906.htm