Army chief says US ready to be in Iraq 10 years

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-27 07:54

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between the United States and Iraq that would bring all American troops home by 2012, the top US Army officer said Tuesday.

Army chief says US ready to be in Iraq 10 years

In this Jan. 15, 2007, file photo, Gen. George Casey, then the US commander in Iraq, who is currently Army chief of staff, answers a question in Baghdad. [Agencies]

Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said the world remains dangerous and unpredictable, and the Pentagon must plan for extended US combat and stability operations in two wars. "Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction," Casey said. "They fundamentally will change how the Army works."

He spoke at an invitation-only briefing to a dozen journalists and policy analysts from Washington-based think-tanks. He said his planning envisions combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade as part of a sustained US commitment to fighting extremism and terrorism in the Middle East.

Casey's calculations about force levels are related to his attempt to ease the brutal deployment calendar that he said would "bring the Army to its knees."

Casey would not specify how many combat units would be split between Iraq and Afghanistan. He said US ground commander Gen. Ray Odierno is leading a study to determine how far US forces could be cut back in Iraq and still be effective.

President Barack Obama plans to bring US combat forces home from Iraq in 2010, and the United States and Iraq have agreed that all American forces would leave by 2012. Although several senior US officials have suggested Iraq could request an extension, the legal agreement the two countries signed last year would have to be amended for any significant US presence to remain.

As recently as February, Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated the US commitment to the agreement worked out with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"Under the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government, I intend to remove all US troops from Iraq by the end of 2011," Gates said during an address at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. "We will complete this transition to Iraqi responsibility, and we will bring our troops home with the honor that they have earned."

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