WASHINGTON – President Bush’s new operation to secure Baghdad will begin in earnest with a push by thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops in the first week of February, and its chances of success should be evident within a few months, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told lawmakers Friday.
If the plan works, the United States could begin drawing down troop levels by the end of the year, Gates said. If the Iraqi government does not deliver troops and political and economic support, he said, the United States could withhold many of the 21,500 additional forces Bush has ordered to secure the most violent parts of Iraq.
Gates and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also assured members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that there are no plans to take military operations into Iran, clarifying remarks Bush made Wednesday in announcing the new Iraq package.
“From a military standpoint,” Pace said while responding to questions, there is “no need to cross the Iranian border.”
Gates said a brigade of several thousand Iraqi troops is expected to arrive in Baghdad in about three weeks to beef up security, part of an effort to bring in 8,000 more Iraqi forces to quell sectarian violence. The first additional U.S. brigade is expected to arrive in Baghdad in coming days to support Iraqi forces as they clear and hold neighborhoods throughout the city.
“I think that what’s perhaps the newest part of this is that it really does put the onus on the Iraqis to come through,” Gates said. He later acknowledged that the Iraqi government’s “record of fulfilling the commitments is not an encouraging one” but said that Iraqis “really do seem to be eager to take control of this security situation.”
Gates said it will be easy to tell if Iraqis live up to their end of the bargain, prompting members of the committee to point out that the Iraqi government sent only two of six promised battalions for an operation in Baghdad last summer.
The troop increase in Iraq will require the Army “very soon” to alert a number of National Guard combat brigades that they will have to deploy in about a year – earlier than anticipated – to provide relief for busy active-duty Army units, a senior military official said in a briefing.
The idea of a significant troop increase in Iraq has been championed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and he said Friday that a small, short troop boost would be the “worst of all worlds” because he believes the U.S. military needs a sustained, robust presence. McCain also accused detractors of not presenting viable alternatives.
“I believe that those who disagree with this new policy should indicate what they would propose to do if we withdraw and Iraq descends into chaos,” McCain said.
U.S. military deaths
Latest identifications reported by the military of U.S. personnel killed in Iraq:
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