According to AFP, "the US Army expects to maintain its current level of 120,000 troops in Iraq for at least two more years, according to a US newspaper report, citing the army's top operations officer.
'We're making the assumption that the level of effort is going to continue,' Lieutenant General James Lovelace was quoted as saying in the Washington Post.
The assumption suggests that the army is not counting on Iraqi security forces to enable a reduction in US force levels any time soon, although Lovelace said it was not intended to prejudge security trends in Iraq but, rather, provide a basis for planning.
But he said the assumption of little change through 2006 represents 'the most probable cause,' the Post said.
He said the army plans to continue rotating active-duty units in and out of Iraq in year-long deployments and is looking for ways to dip even deeper into reserve forces, according to the Post.
The army accounts for the bulk of the 150,000 US troops now in Iraq, which have been beefed up in recent weeks amid intensifying violence ahead of the January 30 elections."
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
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That will be two more years where we will be unable to assert ourselves in a militarily significant way anywhere else in the world but Iraq.
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