General Rejects Any Call for Timetable for Withdrawal of Troops
By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: November 17, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 16 - A day after the Senate voted down a Democratic proposal to require the Bush administration to project dates for a phased withdrawal of American troops, the general commanding 30,000 troops in Baghdad spoke out forcefully on Wednesday against a withdrawal schedule.
He called it "a recipe for disaster" and a breach of faith with American soldiers who have died here.
The officer, Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., commander of the Third Infantry Division, told reporters at a lunch in the Green Zone command compound that setting dates for withdrawal would undermine the morale of American soldiers. He said it would also spread dismay among ordinary Iraqis, who have told American troops they want the Americans to stay until security improves.
"I think setting any sort of date on the calendar is, and I'm trying to think of the right word, a recipe for disaster," General Webster said.
He will end a yearlong assignment in Iraq in early January when the Fourth Infantry Division assumes responsibility for security in Baghdad.
In his meeting with reporters, he spoke of the 221 members of Task Force Baghdad, composed of the Third Infantry Division and other army units, who have been killed in action under his command, and said their deaths would lose meaning if the United States allowed the insurgents to win the war.
"Look, our troopers are out there trying to get things accomplished every day on the streets of Baghdad because they believe they are doing the right thing," he said, "and they are getting feedback from the Iraqi people in Baghdad virtually every day that this is good, and they feel safe around Americans, they want Americans to be accompanying Iraqis when their homes are looked into, they will invite us in. You hear that a lot.
"The soldiers believe they are making the lives of the Baghdad people better. When you start to set a date on the wall and say, 'We're going to be gone by a certain date,' the insurgents can start to think, 'We're winning,' and they can just wait until we leave.
"And then the 221 soldiers that I have lost this year, their lives will have been in vain."
He added: "It gets me fired up. Yes, we ought to have an exit strategy, and we have one, and I think I understand it, and I think it's working. But setting a date, to say, 'We're going to be gone by this date,' without conditions being met, I think is a loser."
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