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US Iraq Plan To Include New Troops And Lots Of Jobs For Iraqis
Washington (AFP) Jan 07, 2007 President George W. Bush's new Iraq strategy calls for a rapid influx of as many as 20,000 new US combat troops to Baghdad, supplemented with a jobs program for Iraq costing as much as one billion dollars, The New York Times reported Sunday. Citing unnamed US officials who are working on the plan, the newspaper reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki formally agreed in a long teleconference with Bush on Thursday to match the US troop increase by sending three more Iraqi brigades to Baghdad over the next month and a half. Bush is expected to make the plan public in the coming week, possibly on Wednesday. Even in outlining the changes, some American officials acknowledged deep skepticism about whether the new plan could succeed, the report said. They said two-thirds of the promised Iraqi force would consist of Kurdish peshmerga units to be sent from northern Iraq, and they said some doubts remained about whether they would show up in Baghdad and were truly committed to quelling sectarian fighting, the paper said. The call for an increase in troops would also put Bush in direct confrontation with the leaders of the new Democratic Congress, who said in a letter to the president on Friday that the United States should move instead toward a phased withdrawal of American troops. A few voices in Congress remained stalwart supporters of a buildup, however, including Republican US Senator and likely presidential contender John McCain. "The presence of additional coalition forces would allow the Iraqi government to do what it cannot accomplish today on its own -- impose its rule throughout the country," wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Sunday. A surge of troops, he wrote in the daily, "must be substantial and it must be sustained." According to The Times, officials said Bush was likely to be vague on the question of how long the additional US forces would remain on the streets of Baghdad. But they said American planners intended for the push to last for less than a year. A crucial element of the plan would include more than doubling the State Department's reconstruction efforts throughout the country, an initiative intended by the administration to signal that the new strategy would emphasize rebuilding as much as fighting, the paper said. The details of Bush's latest military, economic and political initiatives were described by several sources, including some who said they doubted it would work, the report said. The jobs program, noted one, "would have been great in 2003 or even 2004, but we are trying it now in a very different Iraq," one in which the passion for fighting for sectarian control of neighborhoods may outweigh interests in obtaining employment, The Times said.
earlier related report "The Iraqi army and the Iraqi police and the Iraqi government have a very, very clear plan to go after anyone -- anyone, regardless of the organization they belong to -- and to go after those who show with their arms in the street," Rubaie told CNN television. As US President George W. Bush prepares in Washington to unveil this week a long-awaited plan to stave off Iraq's slide into a deeper tumult, Rubaie said efforts to stem sectarian violence are already underway and would be stepped up in the coming months. "We have a full comprehensive plan and we have already started implementing this plan. But we are going to speed up this process in the year 2007," he said. "We will go after any armed group ... where they show themselves with their arms in the street whether they are Shia or Sunnis," he said. "Whether these radical elements, armed groups, are Shia or Sunnis, we are colorblind ... when it comes to the sectarian and when it comes to the violence in this country," he said. His remarks come one day after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki declared a revised security plan for Baghdad aimed at curbing the raging insurgent and sectarian violence in the Iraqi capital. Maliki said the plan will offer more muscle to Iraqi forces who will be backed by US troops, but offered few details. A massive security plan, Operation Together Forward, has been in place since June 2006 in Baghdad to secure the capital which is the epicentre of Iraq's insurgent and sectarian violence. But despite the plan more than 100 people are killed daily in Baghdad, according to United Nations figures.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links Iraq: The first techonology war of the 21st century
A Sudden Departure From CIA Headquarters
Washington (UPI) Jan 05, 2007The sudden departure of Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte to the State Department and his replacement by retired Adm. Michael McConnell risks creating a leadership vacuum in his new office, says the incoming chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. |
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