| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush announced on Tuesday modest cuts in US troop levels in Iraq, a move that drew a sharp attack from opponents of the war pushing for a speedier draw down.
Bush said he would withdraw about 8,000 soldiers from Iraq by February, and send 4,500 soldiers to Afghanistan to battle resurgent Taliban forces.
The decision means the president's successor will take office in January with the US military presence in Iraq at about 140,000 troops - still a bigger deployment than two years ago despite the deep unpopularity of the war.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama lambasted the redeployment as "very modest", with too few troops coming out of Iraq and too few going to Afghanistan to fight the strengthening Taliban insurgency.
He accused Bush of "continuing the same strategic mistake that has dominated our foreign policy for over 5 years."
Speaking to the National Defence University here, Bush said progress in having Iraqis take over security responsibility - which he characterised as "unimaginable" just two years ago - had made a troop draw down possible.
He said around 3,400 support unit troops would return home in coming months, a Marine battalion by November and an army brigade by February - for a total of about 8,000 soldiers.
But Bush also warned that "the progress in Iraq is still fragile and reversible."
"If the progress in Iraq continues to hold, General (David) Petraeus and our military leaders believe additional reductions will be possible in the first half of 2009," Bush said, referring to the top US commander there.
The US president said a Marine battalion would be deployed to Afghanistan in November, to be followed by an army combat unit in January.
"Afghanistan's success is critical to the security of America and our partners in the free world. And for all the good work we have done in that country, it is clear we must do even more," he said.
But Obama, echoing demands by some in the US military for a bigger shift of troops to fight the Taliban, said the Bush plan "comes up short".
"It is not enough troops, and not enough resources, with not enough urgency," he said.
Bush also highlighted the need for Pakistan to do more in the war on terrorism.
"As we take these new steps in Afghanistan, we must also help the government of Pakistan defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters hiding in remote border regions of that country," he said.
Bush said he called Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, and "pledged the full support of America's government as Pakistan takes the fight to the terrorists and extremists in the border regions."
"Defeating these terrorists and extremists is in Pakistan's interest because they pose a mortal threat to Pakistan's future as a free and democratic nation," he said.
His message came amid media reports of multiple strikes inside Pakistan recently by US or international troops based in Afghanistan, which accuses its neighbour of abetting or at least turning a blind eye to cross-border violence.
The unpopular president has steadfastly resisted calls for a withdrawal timetable in the five and a half years since the March 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
His speech came eight weeks before the November 4 US election in which Bush's preferred successor, Republican Senator John McCain, has pinned his hopes on his early and fervent support of the 2007 "surge" boost of 30,000 US troops to Iraq.
Obama has pledged to begin troop withdrawals immediately if elected, and foresees most combat troops being out of Iraq by late 2010.
Recent polls show two out of three Americans oppose the war and want to see a quick withdrawal, but many view the "surge" as a success story, and Bush has repeatedly said that US politics will not shape his decision.
Iraqi Prime Mininster Nuri al-Maliki has said that Washington and Baghdad have agreed that foreign forces will be gone by 2011 in talks on an agreement to govern the US troop presence in Iraq after its UN mandate lapses on December 31. The White House denies that the deal is done. - AFP/de
|
