The top United States commander in Iraq on Monday said the number of US troops in Iraq could be cut by next summer to roughly 130 000, its level before this year’s ”surge” of 30 000 forces, without jeopardising security improvements.
Speaking to a congressional hearing on a war that has killed more than 3 700 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis, General David Petraeus also strongly endorsed US President George Bush’s decision to add forces this year.
”The military objectives of the surge are in large measure being met,” Petraeus said in an appearance with US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker that may set the stage for the political debate in Washington on when and whether to withdraw forces.
”I believe we will be able to reduce our forces to pre-surge level by next summer without jeopardising the security gains,” Petraeus added.
There are 168 000 US troops in Iraq. A cut of the sort outlined by Petraeus would restore troop levels to around 130 000, roughly where they were in January when Bush decided to add troops to give Iraqi leaders breathing space to achieve political reconciliation among warring Shi’ites and Sunnis.
As the hearing began, Petraeus listened to deep skepticism from the Democrats who seized control of Congress last year largely because of the profound discontent with the war among American voters.
House armed services committee chairperson Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, told Petraeus the Iraq war had left the United States unable to confront other challenges.
”The troops in Iraq are not available for other missions; to go into Afghanistan to pursue Osama bin Laden” whose al-Qaeda militant group attacked the United States six years ago on Tuesday, Skelton said.
”The administration’s myopic policies in Iraq have created a fiasco,” added House foreign affairs committee chairperson Tom Lantos, a California Democrat. ”The administration has sent you here today to convince the members of these two committees and the Congress that victory is at hand … I don’t buy it.”
The Iraq war began in March 2003 when US-led forces invaded to topple Saddam Hussein but has dragged on for more than four years amid a vicious insurgency and brutal sectarian warfare.
Although violence has ebbed in some parts of the country, it continues to rage in others. A suicide truck bomb killed 10 people and wounded 60 in northern Iraq while a car bomb killed two people and wounded six in central Baghdad, police said.
The war is deeply unpopular among Americans, who last year gave control of both houses of Congress to the Democrats largely because of anti-war sentiment and disaffection with Bush’s Republicans.
However, the Democrats do not appear to have the votes to cut off funding for the war, the main tool that Congress could use to force Bush to change strategy.
Some analysts believe that the Democrats, hoping that they may win the White House next year, fear a major cut in troop levels could both worsen the situation on the ground and open them to political criticism that they ”lost” Iraq.
In Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told lawmakers his government had stopped Iraq sliding into civil war and said violence in and around Baghdad had plunged under a U.S.-backed security crackdown this year.
Speaking before the testimony by Petraeus and Crocker, Maliki said security gains had been made across Iraq, but added that his forces needed more time to take over full security responsibility from US-led foreign soldiers. – Reuters