[Sosfbay-discuss] Analysis: Iraq surge may be extended

[JamBoi]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070421/ap_on_go_pr_wh/iraq_troop_boost
Analysis: Iraq surge may be extended

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer 2 hours, 13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is laying the groundwork to extend the U.S.
troop buildup in Iraq. At the same time, the administration is warning
Iraqi leaders that the boost in forces could be reversed if political
reconciliation is not evident by summer.

This approach underscores the central difficulty facing President Bush.
If political progress is not possible in the relatively short term,
then the justification for sending thousands more U.S. troops to
Baghdad — and accepting the rising U.S. combat death toll that has
resulted — will disappear. That in turn would put even more pressure on
Bush to yield to the Democratic-led push to wind down the war in coming
months.

If the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki does manage to
achieve the political milestones demanded by Washington, then the U.S.
military probably will be told to sustain the troop buildup much longer
than originally foreseen — possibly well into 2008. Thus the early
planning for keeping it up beyond late summer.

More than half of the extra 21,500 combat troops designated for Baghdad
duty have arrived; the rest are due by June. Already it is evident that
putting them in the most hotly contested parts of the capital is taking
a toll. An average of 22 U.S. troops have died per week in April, the
highest rate so far this year.

"This is certainly a price that we're paying for this increased
security," Adm. William Fallon, the senior U.S. commander in the Middle
East, told a House committee Wednesday. He also said the United States
does not have "a ghost of a chance" of success in Iraq unless it can
create "stability and security."

The idea of the troop increase, originally billed by the administration
as a temporary "surge," is not to defeat the insurgency. That is not
thought possible in the near term. The purpose is to contain the
violence — in particular, the sect-on-sect killings in Baghdad — long
enough to create an environment in which Iraqi political leaders can
move toward conciliation and ordinary Iraqis are persuaded of a viable
future.

So far the results are mixed, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said
this week during a visit to Iraq that he wants to see faster political
progress by the Iraqis. "The clock is ticking," he said, referring to
the limited time the administration can pursue its strategy before the
American public demands an end to the war.

Gates also said he told al-Maliki that the United States will not keep
fighting indefinitely.

Gates' remarks reflected the administration's effort to strike a
balance between reassuring the Iraqis of U.S. support and pressuring
their leaders to show they can bring the country together and avert a
full-scale civil war.

Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq watcher at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, said Friday that even if the Iraqis pass the
desired legislation, it probably would take months longer to find out
if it proves workable.

"The U.S. should definitely keep up the pressure on the Iraqis, but we
should have no illusions," Cordesman said. "Iraqis are driven more by
their own politics than outside pressure."

When Bush announced the troop boost in January, administration
officials pointedly left unclear how long the extra troops would remain
in Iraq. Some, including Gates, suggested that troop levels could be
reduced to the previous standard of about 135,000 as early as September
— assuming the addition of 21,500 combat troops and roughly 8,000
support troops this spring proved to be an overwhelming success or a
clear-cut failure.

Three months later, with troops still flowing into Baghdad, the
Pentagon is beginning to take steps that suggests it expects to
maintain higher troop levels into 2008 and beyond, yet officials still
won't say whether the increase is intended as a short-term move. Some
believe the lack of clarity is a mistake because it adds to the strain
on troops and their families and it may lessen the psychological
pressure on the belligerents.

Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, whose January
report on changing the U.S. military strategy in Iraq was largely
adopted as part of Bush's new approach to the war, said in an interview
Thursday that it appears the administration believes it will have to
sustain the troop buildup much longer.

"They seem to be taking the steps that would make it possible to
sustain it for longer, which is good," Kagan said. "But they seem to be
reluctant to commit to a willingness to do that, which I think is
unfortunate."

Kagan says the troops, the Iraqi government and the insurgents all
ought to be convinced that U.S. forces will keep up the pressure,
particularly in the most contested neighborhoods in Baghdad, for at
least another year.

"If I were running the show I would say, 'Look, everyone should assume
that we're going to sustain this through 2008 — the Iraqis should
assume that, too — and if we can turn it off sooner, then everyone
would be happy," Kagan said.

Gen. James T. Conway, the commandant of the Marine Corps, takes a
similar view. In an interview earlier this month he pondered the
thought process of a U.S. commander in Iraq evaluating the way ahead.
"In six months, if it's working, is he going to say, 'OK, it worked,
now you guys can go home'?" Conway thinks there is a reasonable chance
for success, and for planning purposes he is preparing to sustain the
troop buildup.

The Marines added about 4,000 to their contingent in western Anbar
province, the focal point of the Sunni Arab insurgency. In March the
Marines made a little-noticed move that gives them the flexibility to
continue at the higher rate in Iraq at least into 2008. They extended
the tours of Marines in Okinawa, Japan, which freed up other Marine
units in the United States to deploy to Iraq later this year instead of
Okinawa.

Also, the Pentagon announced earlier this month that normal tours of
duty in Iraq will be 15 months instead of 12 months. Gates said that
gives the military the capability to maintain the higher troop levels
in Iraq until next spring.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Robert Burns has covered the military for The
Associated Press since 1990.

___________________

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