Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (253061)	9/29/2005 4:24:10 PM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1571160

US generals say Iraq 'hard struggle' By Will Dunham 2 hours, 2 minutes ago Senior U.S. generals said on Thursday that cutting the number of U.S. troops in Iraq in 2006 would depend on political events there in the next 2 1/2 months, while senators worried about slow progress training Iraqi security forces. At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona pointedly told Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the war had not gone as well as the Pentagon said it would go. "I don't think this committee or the American public has ever heard me say that things are going very well in Iraq," said Myers, speaking a day before he retires from his post. "This is a hard struggle." Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, predicted in March and July "fairly substantial" reductions in U.S. troops next spring and summer that Pentagon officials said meant perhaps 20,000 to 30,000. Casey told the committee that the possibility for troops cuts in 2006 still exists. But Casey said "the next 75 days are going to be critical" in deciding on such cuts. Iraqis vote on a draft constitution in an October 15 referendum and, if they endorse it, elect a new government on December 15. The document largely reflects the views of the Shi'ite Muslim majority and the Kurds leading the U.S.-backed Iraqi government rather than the minority Sunni Arabs who controlled Iraq under deposed President Saddam Hussein. Iraq's insurgency draws the bulk of its support from the Sunni Arab community. U.S. public support for the 2 1/2-year war has dropped in opinion polls, which has contributed to falling support for U.S. President George W. Bush. Some U.S. lawmakers are questioning how long troops will stay and Thursday's hearing took place less than a week after an anti-war protest in Washington last weekend drew at least 100,000 people. Casey said the average 20th century counterinsurgency lasted nine years. "And there is no reason that we should believe that the insurgency in Iraq will take any less time to deal with," Casey said, although he did not say U.S. forces would be there the entire time. The United States has 149,000 troops in Iraq and since the invasion there have been 1,924 U.S. military deaths, with another 14,755 wounded in action, the Pentagon said. The U.S. troop deaths have been dwarfed by Iraqi casualties. IRAQI SECURITY FORCES A WORRY McCain and other senators speaking on Thursday worried about the capabilities of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces -- who Washington has said must be built up before American troops can withdraw. Casey and Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the number of Iraqi security battalions able to operate on their own without U.S. forces had declined in recent months. Of the roughly 100 Iraqi battalions, only one was able to operate independently, down from three, they said, but did not elaborate. "We fully recognize that Iraqi armed forces will not have an independent capability for some time, because they don't have the institutional base to support them," Casey said. Casey also said the Iraqi government had been unable to pay an unspecified number of the 67,000 Iraqi police, who are among the 192,000 U.S.-trained Iraqi forces. He added reducing U.S. troop presence in Iraq would take away one element fueling the insurgency -- "that of the coalition forces as an occupying force." The Bush administration, which presents the war in Iraq as part of its declared war on terrorism, has said that withdrawing troops now would embolden enemies of the United States. Myers said Thursday that if the United States pulls out now from Iraq, another attack like the one on September 11, 2001, was "right around the corner." Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), a Massachusetts Democrat, expressed concern over infiltration of Iraqi security forces by the insurgents. "It's a problem that's faced by police forces in every major city in our country, that criminals infiltrate and sign up to join the police force," responded Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.