General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, will not promise Congress large troop withdrawals beyond July, saying it is too soon to make decisions about the second half of the year, defense officials say.
Petraeus will tell Congress next week the US military needs time to evaluate security conditions throughout Iraq before committing to more large troop reductions this year.
That assessment period, referred to as a “pause” in withdrawals, has assumed greater significance for Pentagon officials after last week’s clashes in Baghdad and Basra between Iraqi forces and Shiite militiaman — fighting that raised doubts about the skill of US-trained Iraqi soldiers.
“It is the kind of violence and lack of security that would certainly drive an assessment of what we would do after that [pause in withdrawals],” chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said.
“The period of consolidation and evaluation will take place and we’ll take recommendations based on conditions on the ground there,” Mullen said ahead of Petraeus’ testimony.
That call for a pause will likely rile Democrats and other opponents of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, who have latched onto the Basra fighting as a sign the increase or “surge” of US troops last year failed to move Iraqis any closer to security or political stability.
“I think it’s time we take a sober look,” said Senator Joseph Biden, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
“My question really is ... not whether the surge has tactically worked or not. Has the purpose of the surge been accomplished?” he said.
The Pentagon is pulling five brigades — about 20,000 combat troops — out of Iraq under plans announced last year. Two of the five have already left.
The US has 158,000 troops in Iraq now and Petraeus is expected to tell Congress exactly how many troops will be in Iraq when reductions are finished in July.
He may discuss the possibility of restarting withdrawals and the potential pace of any drawdown. But an assessment period will come first, officials said and a pause could last at least a month and perhaps much longer.
Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker will also be asked by lawmakers during the hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday to assess the success of the surge strategy.
The addition of combat troops last year has been credited with lowering attacks and deaths, especially in Baghdad. That led some US officials to declare the surge a military success.
But other factors helped improve security too, including Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s order for his Mehdi Army militia to cease fire and a decision by Sunni leaders in Anbar to join US and Iraqi forces in their fight against al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, a new classified US National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq paints a rosier picture of the conditions on the ground than previous reports on the war, the Wall Street Journal reported online on Thursday.
The daily said officials describe the document as broadly backing the “surge” strategy.
The officials would not describe details of the report, but said it focused on improvements in security and in the Iraqi government, the newspaper said.
The newspaper reported that this has angered some Democrats who say the report was designed to bolster the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq ahead of Petraeus’ testimony.
The report was requested by Senator John Warner and delivered to Congress on Tuesday.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS