Tug of war over troops
Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 10:28 AM
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Baghdad, Iraq
By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News' Chief Pentagon Correspondent
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq – Long after sundown, Gen. David Petraeus sat down with a handful of us Pentagon reporters in an otherwise empty dining room at Camp Victory in Baghdad to talk about ending the surge operation that began about a year ago and bringing those U.S. surge forces home.
Appearing as tired and weary as I've ever seen him, Petraeus appeared to regain some of his trademark energy as he talked about the reduction in overall violence in Iraq to its lowest levels in three years and expressed confidence that all five of the additional combat brigades sent to Iraq for the surge, some 21,000 U.S. forces, would be going home by the end of July. But typically cautious, Petraeues warned, "It will not be easy."
The general calls them "storm clouds," major problems that could reverse the security gains made during the surge and says he'll lay out all those potential pitfalls when he briefs Congress on the status of the surge in early April.
Among the "clouds" on the horizon: a spike in violence as U.S. forces decrease or an inability of Iraqi forces to takeover security operations, along with the lack of political and economic progress.
It's because of all those potential problems that Petraeus is resisting pressure, both political and from within his own military, to continue to drawdown the numbers of American troops in Iraq once the surge has ended. Meanwhile there's a tug-of-war developing within the military for what U.S. troops will remain.
Can’t play ‘whack-a-mole again’
In a whirlwind two-day tour of Iraq with the Joint Chiefs Chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, it became increasingly clear that even when the surge ends, those U.S. soldiers and Marines will still be in high demand.
U.S. military commanders say they need more combat forces in northern Iraq to counter a dramatic spike in violence. In Mosul, senior military officials say al-Qaida has a death grip on the west side of the city and call the situation there "ugly."
Petraeus on the other hand says he's not "panicked" by the increased violence in Mosul and warns that pulling troops out of Baghdad to send them up north could threaten the security gains already made. Petraeus insists, "The key is to hang onto what you've got," adding, "You cannot in your eagerness to go after something new start to play whack-a-mole again. You have to hang onto those areas you have cleared, you've got to have a plan." But that's not the only demand on the force.
Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George Casey has already told Congress that the Army is so stressed out by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that he wants to reduce the extended 15-month Iraq tours back down to a year. That means more rest time back home for the soldiers, but potentially fewer forces available for Iraq.
There's also growing pressure within the military to consider sending those soldiers and Marines sent home from Iraq to Afghanistan, where violence is on the rise and the future of that operation is in increasing peril. Even presidential hopeful Barack Obama says if he is elected president he would send two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan immediately to take on the Taliban and al-Qaida.
While encouraged by what progress he saw during his brief tour in Iraq, Mullen predicted American troops would still be in Iraq for "years, not months," but eventually at substantially lower levels. Even that would come as much-needed and welcomed relief.
