December 21, 2007
DOD: It Was A Pretty Good Year...
UPDATED
Thanks to the military's performance in Iraq, officials in the Department of Defense have genuine reason to clink glasses as the year winds down, though they know better than to go overboard in their celebrations.
In his year-end press briefing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the drawdown of five brigade combat teams (BCTs) by July 2008 was going as planned and should allow for yet more troop reductions. The first of the BCTs returned from Iraq earlier this month.
"My hope is the circumstances on the ground will continue to improve in a way that, when Gen. [David] Petraeus and the Joint Chiefs and Central Command do their analysis in March, will allow a continuation of the drawdown at roughly the same pace as the first half of the year," Gates said in the Pentagon briefing room.
"This is completely dependent on circumstances on the ground," he affirmed. "If we continue withdrawals at the level of the first half of the year, if conditions permit, that would bring us down by the end of the administration to about 10 brigade combat teams. I want to stress that all of this is conditions-based," he said, repeating himself.
The military's leadership is careful to always qualify its projections for the war with caution after years of setbacks in Iraq and scores of U.S. combat deaths and injuries. Gates was able to deliver this year on a strategy about-face that war critics and backers alike had been demanding. Casualties and attacks, though still constant, are down significantly, one year after many believed Iraq had irretrievably devolved into chaos.
Gates said the military's challenge in the coming months was to "sustain and expand" on the security gains made over the last half of 2007. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander on the ground, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, his civilian counterpart, are due back in Washington this March to deliver another assessment of progress in Iraq. Last September, Petraeus and Crocker reported that violence was decreasing, but that the path to political reconciliation in Iraq, the lynchpin of long-term security, remained elusive.
Gates acknowledged that the performance of Iraq's government ministries "was uneven." Asked about his level of confidence in the ability of Iraq's leaders -- President Jalal Talabani (Kurdish), Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi (Sunni) and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (Shiite) -- to at last form a functional central government, Gates responded, "They are committed to getting it done. We'll see if they get it done."
Posted at 12:39 PM
Posted to:
Bush Administration, David Petraeus, Iraq, Middle East, Military, Robert Gates
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