Vol. 73/No. 1      January 12, 2009

The announcement comes just weeks after Washington and Baghdad adopted an agreement that extends deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq until Dec. 31, 2011.

Though the “status-of-forces” agreement calls for troops to pull out of cities and towns by the end of June, Odierno said that some troops would remain at numerous outposts in Iraqi cities to help support and train Iraqi soldiers and cops. Counterinsurgency forces that fight alongside Iraqi troops are defined by the U.S. military as “training personnel.” The general argued that no adjustments to the pact are necessary to do this.

Even the 2011 deadline for the full withdrawal could be renegotiated, said Odierno. “Three years is a very long time.” The current UN mandate for the more than half-decade-long military operation expired in December.

As a result of Washington’s progress there, insurgent activity has declined. Average monthly U.S. troop fatalities are down this year to 25 per month from an average of about 70 from 2004 to 2007.

Odierno’s statement made at a base north of Baghdad followed an unannounced visit there by Defense Secretary Robert Gates that same day. Gates, chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to remain in his post, had just arrived from a conference in Bahrain where he spoke about U.S. imperialism’s course going into the next presidential administration.

“Anyone who thought that the upcoming months might present opportunities to test the new president would be sorely mistaken,” said Gates at the conference. “President Obama and his national security team, myself included, will be ready to defend the interests of the United States and our friends and allies from the moment he takes office on January 20.”

Gates also expressed concern over the size of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. The Obama administration plans to send 20,000 additional troops there in 2009.

“I am more mindful than most that with 120,000 troops the Soviets still lost, because they never had the support of the Afghan people,” he said. “I think that after we complete these troop increases that we’re talking about, we ought to think long and hard about how many more go in.”

Gates was referring to the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in 1979 to back a government that had taken power there the previous year. Counterrevolutionary landlord forces backed by Washington succeeded in mobilizing popular opposition to the invasion and the new regime and by 1989 Moscow had withdrawn all its troops.
 
 
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