U.S. general may seek more GIs as Iraq success is called 'possible'
U.S. general may seek more GIs as Iraq success is called 'possible'
By John F. Burns
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 24, 2006
BAGHDAD The top American military commander in Iraq said Tuesday that he might call for an increase in U.S. troop levels in Baghdad as part of an overhaul of efforts to recapture the capital from insurgents and death squads that have pushed killings in the city to some of the highest levels of the war.
General George Casey Jr. declined to specify steps to be taken to adjust the Baghdad security plan, which the American command said last week had failed to achieve targets for lowering violence when 7,000 additional American troops, roughly double the number previously deployed here, were assigned to Baghdad in August. At that time, U.S. commanders described the stepped-up bid to regain control of the capital as a critical moment in the war, one likely to determine its outcome.
"We're not going to telegraph what we're going to do to the enemy," Casey said. The U.S. commander said any adjustments would aim at achieving the original objectives of the Baghdad operation, an issue that was reviewed when President George W. Bush met with U.S. military commanders at the White House on Saturday, with Casey joining by teleconference from Baghdad.
At the news conference Tuesday, Casey was joined by Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador, and both men offered reassurances on the war that seemed aimed at calming growing political and popular restiveness in the United States. Addressing American disenchantment with the war, Khalilzad said in an opening statement that "recent sectarian bloodshed in Iraq causes many to question whether the United States and the Iraqis can succeed."
He went on,
"My message today is straightforward: Despite the difficult challenges we face, success in Iraq is possible and can be achieved by a realistic timetable," as long as Iraqi political leaders carry through on agreements to curb the killing, including the demobilization of the politically controlled militia groups that carry out much of the killing.
Casey defined the military objectives as clearing Baghdad of armed gangs and weapons caches neighborhood by neighborhood, then using American and Iraqi troops to hold the areas while the "build" phase, involving hundreds of millions of dollars in economic reconstruction, begins.
"Now, do we need more troops to do that?" Casey said. "Maybe. And as I've said all along, if we do, I will ask for the troops we need, both coalition and Iraq."
At the end of the news conference, he returned to the issue, saying the options included more Iraqi soldiers, more American troops from the 141,000 already deployed in Iraq, or reinforcements "from additional coalition forces from outside the country."
When U.S. commanders refer to coalition forces, they include American troops and contingents from about 30 other nations with soldiers and police units here, most of them involving small troop numbers. But the term is also used to refer solely to American troops, or to the American-trained Iraqi security forces. American commanders have said the most effective way of increasing troop strengths in Baghdad would be for Iraqi commanders, who have so far deployed only two battalions for the Baghdad operation, to provide the other four battalions they originally pledged.
Casey and Khalilzad spoke after a month of intensifying turmoil that has seen two Iraqi cities briefly taken over by militia gangs in the last 10 days, as many as 100 Iraqi civilians a day dying as sectarian death squads prowl Baghdad and other cities and towns, and U.S. troops deaths, at least 90 so far in October, running at their highest level in two years. With U.S. midterm elections two weeks away, the violence has fueled growing calls by critics at home for steps to hasten the end of U.S. involvement here.
If more U.S. troops are assigned to the Baghdad operation, on top of the 15,600 already involved, it would mark a further step back, at least in the short term, from plans for a drawdown in overall U.S. troop levels Casey set at the beginning of this year. The plan then was to get down to 100,000 troops by the end of the year, if conditions in the war allowed.
That target was changed in the spring, to a new timetable that envisaged gradual reductions in the 14 U.S. combat brigades over a period up to December next year.
In August, overall U.S. troop numbers increased with the additional troops deployed for the Baghdad operation, a step that Casey described Tuesday as a switch in policy. "I reversed what I was doing", he said. But he said the goal of reducing U.S. troop levels remained central to American strategy here, and that he still hoped to meet the target of having Iraqi forces "completely capable of taking over responsibility for their own security," with a reduced level of American troops in a back-up and support role, within 12 to 18 months.
"I still very strongly believe that we need to continue to reduce our forces as the Iraqis continue to improve, because we need to get out of their way," Casey said. "The Iraqis are getting better. Their leaders are feeling more responsible for the security in Iraq, and they want to take the reins, and I think we need to do that."
He added, "But I can't tell you right now until we get through Ramadan here, and the rest of this, when that might be."
In other developments Tuesday, the U.S. military command said that four more American troops had died in rebel attacks in Iraq, pushing the death toll this month to at least 90. With a week to go, October has already become the deadliest month for American troops in 12 months and is on pace to become the third deadliest month of the entire conflict.
Two Marines and a sailor were killed Monday in Anbar Province, the military said, and a soldier died early Tuesday from wounds he sustained when his patrol was struck by a concealed bomb in Baghdad.
In Falluja on Monday, American troops, responding to a report that a fire truck had been hijacked by insurgents, stopped a fire truck matching the description, the command reported. As the truck's four occupants "exited quickly," the statement said, the troops opened fire, killing them.
American troops later discovered that the men were actually firefighters responding to an emergency call and were not riding in the hijacked truck. "The fire truck number did not match the one of the hijacked truck," the military said. Troops spotted the correct truck "minutes later," but the occupants fled, evading capture, the statement said.
In Baghdad, an intensive military search continued Tuesday for an American soldier who was reported missing late Monday. Military officials said that the soldier, who is of Iraqi descent and works as a linguist, appeared to have left the fortified Green Zone on Monday afternoon to visit with family members in Baghdad. A military statement, citing witnesses, said the soldier was at a relative's house when men wearing "dark colored rags over their noses and mouths" pulled up in three cars, handcuffed the soldier and took him away in one of the vehicles.
The kidnappers later called a relative of the soldier using the victim's cellphone, the statement said.
Hundreds of American and Iraqi security forces, backed by attack helicopters and unmanned aerial surveillance drones, surged into the central Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada on Monday night, sealing off roads and bridges, searching vehicles, and raiding homes and offices. The sweep continued all day Tuesday, snarling traffic throughout the center of the capital.
American officials vowed to continue the search until the missing serviceman was rescued. "We will leverage all available coalition resources to find this soldier," said Major General James Thurman, the commander of coalition forces in Greater Baghdad.
By John F. Burns
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 24, 2006
BAGHDAD The top American military commander in Iraq said Tuesday that he might call for an increase in U.S. troop levels in Baghdad as part of an overhaul of efforts to recapture the capital from insurgents and death squads that have pushed killings in the city to some of the highest levels of the war.
General George Casey Jr. declined to specify steps to be taken to adjust the Baghdad security plan, which the American command said last week had failed to achieve targets for lowering violence when 7,000 additional American troops, roughly double the number previously deployed here, were assigned to Baghdad in August. At that time, U.S. commanders described the stepped-up bid to regain control of the capital as a critical moment in the war, one likely to determine its outcome.
"We're not going to telegraph what we're going to do to the enemy," Casey said. The U.S. commander said any adjustments would aim at achieving the original objectives of the Baghdad operation, an issue that was reviewed when President George W. Bush met with U.S. military commanders at the White House on Saturday, with Casey joining by teleconference from Baghdad.
At the news conference Tuesday, Casey was joined by Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador, and both men offered reassurances on the war that seemed aimed at calming growing political and popular restiveness in the United States. Addressing American disenchantment with the war, Khalilzad said in an opening statement that "recent sectarian bloodshed in Iraq causes many to question whether the United States and the Iraqis can succeed."
He went on,
"My message today is straightforward: Despite the difficult challenges we face, success in Iraq is possible and can be achieved by a realistic timetable," as long as Iraqi political leaders carry through on agreements to curb the killing, including the demobilization of the politically controlled militia groups that carry out much of the killing.
Casey defined the military objectives as clearing Baghdad of armed gangs and weapons caches neighborhood by neighborhood, then using American and Iraqi troops to hold the areas while the "build" phase, involving hundreds of millions of dollars in economic reconstruction, begins.
"Now, do we need more troops to do that?" Casey said. "Maybe. And as I've said all along, if we do, I will ask for the troops we need, both coalition and Iraq."
At the end of the news conference, he returned to the issue, saying the options included more Iraqi soldiers, more American troops from the 141,000 already deployed in Iraq, or reinforcements "from additional coalition forces from outside the country."
When U.S. commanders refer to coalition forces, they include American troops and contingents from about 30 other nations with soldiers and police units here, most of them involving small troop numbers. But the term is also used to refer solely to American troops, or to the American-trained Iraqi security forces. American commanders have said the most effective way of increasing troop strengths in Baghdad would be for Iraqi commanders, who have so far deployed only two battalions for the Baghdad operation, to provide the other four battalions they originally pledged.
Casey and Khalilzad spoke after a month of intensifying turmoil that has seen two Iraqi cities briefly taken over by militia gangs in the last 10 days, as many as 100 Iraqi civilians a day dying as sectarian death squads prowl Baghdad and other cities and towns, and U.S. troops deaths, at least 90 so far in October, running at their highest level in two years. With U.S. midterm elections two weeks away, the violence has fueled growing calls by critics at home for steps to hasten the end of U.S. involvement here.
If more U.S. troops are assigned to the Baghdad operation, on top of the 15,600 already involved, it would mark a further step back, at least in the short term, from plans for a drawdown in overall U.S. troop levels Casey set at the beginning of this year. The plan then was to get down to 100,000 troops by the end of the year, if conditions in the war allowed.
That target was changed in the spring, to a new timetable that envisaged gradual reductions in the 14 U.S. combat brigades over a period up to December next year.
In August, overall U.S. troop numbers increased with the additional troops deployed for the Baghdad operation, a step that Casey described Tuesday as a switch in policy. "I reversed what I was doing", he said. But he said the goal of reducing U.S. troop levels remained central to American strategy here, and that he still hoped to meet the target of having Iraqi forces "completely capable of taking over responsibility for their own security," with a reduced level of American troops in a back-up and support role, within 12 to 18 months.
"I still very strongly believe that we need to continue to reduce our forces as the Iraqis continue to improve, because we need to get out of their way," Casey said. "The Iraqis are getting better. Their leaders are feeling more responsible for the security in Iraq, and they want to take the reins, and I think we need to do that."
He added, "But I can't tell you right now until we get through Ramadan here, and the rest of this, when that might be."
In other developments Tuesday, the U.S. military command said that four more American troops had died in rebel attacks in Iraq, pushing the death toll this month to at least 90. With a week to go, October has already become the deadliest month for American troops in 12 months and is on pace to become the third deadliest month of the entire conflict.
Two Marines and a sailor were killed Monday in Anbar Province, the military said, and a soldier died early Tuesday from wounds he sustained when his patrol was struck by a concealed bomb in Baghdad.
In Falluja on Monday, American troops, responding to a report that a fire truck had been hijacked by insurgents, stopped a fire truck matching the description, the command reported. As the truck's four occupants "exited quickly," the statement said, the troops opened fire, killing them.
American troops later discovered that the men were actually firefighters responding to an emergency call and were not riding in the hijacked truck. "The fire truck number did not match the one of the hijacked truck," the military said. Troops spotted the correct truck "minutes later," but the occupants fled, evading capture, the statement said.
In Baghdad, an intensive military search continued Tuesday for an American soldier who was reported missing late Monday. Military officials said that the soldier, who is of Iraqi descent and works as a linguist, appeared to have left the fortified Green Zone on Monday afternoon to visit with family members in Baghdad. A military statement, citing witnesses, said the soldier was at a relative's house when men wearing "dark colored rags over their noses and mouths" pulled up in three cars, handcuffed the soldier and took him away in one of the vehicles.
The kidnappers later called a relative of the soldier using the victim's cellphone, the statement said.
Hundreds of American and Iraqi security forces, backed by attack helicopters and unmanned aerial surveillance drones, surged into the central Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada on Monday night, sealing off roads and bridges, searching vehicles, and raiding homes and offices. The sweep continued all day Tuesday, snarling traffic throughout the center of the capital.
American officials vowed to continue the search until the missing serviceman was rescued. "We will leverage all available coalition resources to find this soldier," said Major General James Thurman, the commander of coalition forces in Greater Baghdad.
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