The top United States general in Iraq said on Tuesday he might send more troops into the battle for Baghdad, after an announcement that the Iraqi government had agreed to a timetable for political and military measures aimed at curbing the violence.
General George Casey said the US-led coalition was three-quarters of the way through the process of training Iraqi forces, and predicted that those forces would be ”completely capable of taking over responsibility for their own security” in 12 to 18 months.
The White House, meanwhile, announced that US President George Bush had stopped using the slogan, ”Stay the course”, while the president himself hammered a new buzzword: ”Change”. ”We’re constantly changing. The enemy changes, and we change. The enemy adapts to our strategies and tactics, and we adapt to theirs. We’re constantly changing to defeat this enemy,” he said, after visiting a Florida company making a device for sniffing out roadside bombs.
”I don’t hear anything that would suggest change in policy, just a restatement of it,” Rand Beers, a former strategist in the Bush administration’s national security council, said, pointing out that there had been previous promises about Iraqi troop training and political reforms.
In an indication of the mounting pressure for a change of course, the New York Times on Tuesday devoted its entire leader column to calling for a new solution to the ”disaster” of Iraq and the sacking of the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.
With casualties rising, and calls for a change in strategy coming from Democrats and Republicans, the US’s top civilian and military officials told journalists in Baghdad that the war was not lost and that the US had a concrete plan.
”Despite the difficult challenges we face, success in Iraq is possible and can be achieved on a realistic timetable,” the US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, said, at a press conference in Baghdad’s fortified ”green zone” that was interrupted by power cuts, reflecting the fragile nature of Iraq’s infrastructure.
Casey conceded that the US and its allies faced ”a tough fight” in Baghdad and Anbar province, and opened the door to the possibility of sending yet more forces to pacify the capital.
”Now, do we need more troops to do that? Maybe. And as I’ve said all along, if we do, I will ask for the troops I need, both coalition and Iraqis,” the general said.
US commanders have complained that their soldiers have borne the brunt of the fighting in Baghdad because the Iraqi army sent 2 000 fewer troops than promised. It was not clear whether reinforcements would be sent from elsewhere in Iraq or overall US troop levels would rise.
US armed forces are already said to be under severe strain and would have to make sharp changes in deployment policy, cutting the rest period between combat tours, for instance.
Britain is facing similar problems. The top official at the Ministry of Defence, Bill Jeffrey, admitted on Tuesday that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were having an adverse affect on the army, which is now engaged in operations more intensive than military chiefs ever envisaged.
Jeffrey, a permanent secretary at the MoD, has faced demands from the Commons defence committee to explain when the government would decide when the armed forces could no longer cope with the demands placed on them. Fewer than one in seven British soldiers were now getting the rest between operations the MoD says they need, MPs were told. Routine training was also being hit. About 40% of all the armed forces units have reported ”serious or critical weaknesses” in their ability to switch from peacetime readiness to a state when they could safely go on operations, according to an MoD paper disclosed to the committee.
In Baghdad, US officials said on Tuesday that the Iraqi government had agreed to take measures long demanded by the US, including a law guaranteeing fair distribution of oil revenue among the country’s population, as well as steps to boost ”the credibility and capability of Iraqi forces”.
”Iraqi leaders have agreed to a timeline for making the hard decisions needed to resolve these issues,” Khalilzad said. The details were not made public, nor was it clear what incentives or threats Washington could use to ensure the Iraqi government fulfilled its pledges. It has denied presenting Baghdad with an ultimatum.
Latest incidents
Fallujah
US troops pull over a fire truck and kill four firefighters after a report of a hijacking in western Falluja. The men were firefighters responding to a call
Baghdad
Clashes erupt between gunmen and police in the Zafaraniya district, killing two civilians, wounding eight
A bomb in an ice-cream shop kills one, wounds seven in Sadriya district
US forces make house-to-house searches and set up checkpoints in search for missing US army translator
Kirkuk
One roadside bomb targets the deputy police chief, wounding security guard; another wounds two policemen and two civilians
Bomb kills two Iraqi soldiers and wounds two others
Anbar province
Two US marines killed in hostile fire.
October’s death toll so far
Coalition
US 88
UK 1
Other 2
Iraqis
Security forces 141
Civilians 1 102 – Guardian Unlimited Â