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Draft plan sets timeline for Iraq

The US military command in Iraq has drafted a plan that envisages US troops staying in the country for another two years, the New York Times reported yesterday.

The strategy document calls for restoring security in Baghdad and other local areas by next summer and for "sustainable security" to be achieved across Iraq by the summer of 2009, the newspaper wrote, citing unnamed US officials.

The plan builds on the "surge" strategy set out by President George W. Bush in January when he deployed additional US combat troops to Iraq.

The blueprint was developed by the commander of US troops in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and has been presented to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the newspaper said.

The strategy, entitled "Joint Campaign Plan," comes as legislators in Congress push for a timetable to start withdrawing US troops and have pronounced Bush's surge policy a failure.

Bush's strategy and the latest plan are based on the idea that containing violence and protecting the population will isolate insurgents, providing the conditions needed for political factions to achieve reconciliation, the paper said.

The plan does not call for specific troop levels or timetables for the withdrawal of the 160,000-strong force, the newspaper said. But it does anticipate a decline in the level of US forces after the current surge "runs its course" later this year or by early next year, the newspaper said.

The plan foresees two steps with a short-term goal to achieve "localized security" in Baghdad and other areas no later than next June, with political accommodation encouraged while continuing to press national leaders to move toward reconciliation, it said.

The second step or "intermediate" goal would attempt to build on local deals to forge nationwide security by June 2009.

The plan is expected to be formally issued to officials in Baghdad this week, the paper wrote.
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