Report: Troops In Iraq To Be Drawn Down To 3,000 By Year End
Fox News’s Bret Baier broke news this afternoon that the Obama administration is looking to draw American troop numbers in Iraq down to 3,000 by the end of this year. According to Fox’s sources, this number is significantly less than than the military personnel had expected, and, notedly, less than they believe they need. “We can’t secure everybody with only 3,000 on the ground nor can we do what we need to with the Iraqis,” said one such source of the plan already signed into place by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
The figure is significantly less than the 27,000 generals on the ground had hoped for, and less still than the 10,000 they said they could work with “in extremis.” Officials are concerned that drawing the number down to 3,000 troops on the ground will render their limited missions ineffectual. “There is almost no room for security operations in that number; it will be almost purely a training mission,” voiced one source with concern.
Huffington Post’s Joshua Hersh has confirmed the figure, adding that there “may end up being as many as 5,000 troops in the country at any time, given the logistics of troop rotations.” The draw-down, he emphasized, might significantly decrease American presence, but will not cut it out entirely. According to Brian Katulis, a senior fellow for the Center For American Progress, “the American footprint will remain quite large no matter what … We’re going to have the largest diplomatic and development presence in the world, and there’s going to be a very large army of private contractors defending them.”
The plan, already signed into action by Panetta, still requires Iraq approval. Presumed cost-cutting reasons aside, the Pentagon sounds unready to explain the drastic drop, spokesman George Little commenting only that “Discussions with the Iraqis on our post-2011 strategic relationship are ongoing, and no decisions on troop levels have been made,” and saying that the Pentagon will “continue to proceed with troop withdrawals as directed by the president.”
Meanwhile, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani has in recent days called on central Iraqi government to keep American forces in the country, saying that: “Iraqi security forces are still not prepared to secure protection for Iraq and the Iraqi army is not prepared to guard borders and the air force possesses nothing.”
Watch Bret Baier on Fox below:
