US troops could stay on in Iraq after 2011
Source: Agencies |
April 8, 2011, Friday
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THE Obama administration would keep American troops in Iraq beyond the agreed final withdrawal date of December 31, 2011, if the Iraqi government wanted them, but the Iraqis need to decide "pretty quickly" in order for the Pentagon to accommodate the extension, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Baghdad yesterday during what he said probably is his final visit to the war-torn country.
Whether to negotiate an extended United States military presence is up to the Iraqis, he said, adding he thought an extension might make sense.
"We are willing to have a presence beyond (2011), but we've got a lot of commitments," he said, not only in Afghanistan and Libya but also in Japan, where he said 19 US Navy ships and about 18,000 US military personnel are assisting in earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor relief efforts.
"So if folks here are going to want us to have a presence, we're going to need to get on with it pretty quickly in terms of our planning," he added. "I think there is interest in having a continuing presence."
Army General Lloyd Austin, the top American commander in Iraq, said the country is lacking important security capabilities. Those include the defense of its air space and the wherewithal to supply and maintain its own forces, he said.
The US now has about 47,000 troops in Iraq, and they will begin leaving in large numbers in late summer or early fall. The US led an invasion in March 2003 that toppled the government of president Saddam Hussein a month later, but an insurgency soon set in and the US got mired in a conflict that has lasted far longer - and cost far more American and Iraqi lives - than Washington had anticipated.
Whether to negotiate an extended United States military presence is up to the Iraqis, he said, adding he thought an extension might make sense.
"We are willing to have a presence beyond (2011), but we've got a lot of commitments," he said, not only in Afghanistan and Libya but also in Japan, where he said 19 US Navy ships and about 18,000 US military personnel are assisting in earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor relief efforts.
"So if folks here are going to want us to have a presence, we're going to need to get on with it pretty quickly in terms of our planning," he added. "I think there is interest in having a continuing presence."
Army General Lloyd Austin, the top American commander in Iraq, said the country is lacking important security capabilities. Those include the defense of its air space and the wherewithal to supply and maintain its own forces, he said.
The US now has about 47,000 troops in Iraq, and they will begin leaving in large numbers in late summer or early fall. The US led an invasion in March 2003 that toppled the government of president Saddam Hussein a month later, but an insurgency soon set in and the US got mired in a conflict that has lasted far longer - and cost far more American and Iraqi lives - than Washington had anticipated.
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