Iraq War Watch: Rice Says Iraq Troop Levels May Draw Down
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, shakes hands with Bosnian Tri-Presidency Chairman Ivo Miro Jovic during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005 celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords. Leaders of Bosnia’s three major ethnic groups agreed to a framework for unifying the Balkan country a decade after civil war and Europe’s bloodiest fighting since World War II.
The ASSociated Press has Rice Says Iraq Troop Levels May Draw Down
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States will probably not need to maintain its current troop levels in Iraq “very much longer,” though she declined to provide a precise timetable for reduction in U.S. forces.
Rice appeared to set the stage for such a reduction, saying the Iraqi forces are doing a better job of holding their own against insurgents.
“I do not think that American forces need to be there in the numbers that they are now because – for very much longer – because Iraqis are stepping up,” Rice told Fox News in an interview Tuesday. “This is not just a matter of training numbers of Iraqi forces, but actually seeing them hold territory.”
And…….
The Washington Post reported in Wednesday’s editions that the Pentagon tentatively plans to reduce the number of U.S. forces in Iraq early next year by as many as three combat brigades, down from 18 there now. There are now almost 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Post, citing unidentified senior military officers, said one brigade will be kept “on call” in Kuwait in case more troops are needed quickly.
Good News out of Iraq…….
Update #1
“Iraqi security forces are able to conduct operations in a large portion of their area with only limited coalition support….They do require our support at this time. That support will be increasingly less over a period of time, but a precipitous pullout, I believe, would be destabilizing.”
–Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, commander of the Multinational Corps, Iraq.