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Ex-Army spokesman says U.S. committed to long war in Iraq

By Terry Kinney
Associated Press

The U.S. is beginning to reposition troops in Iraq as Iraqis take on more security responsibilities for what officials are calling the long war against terrorism, the former chief Army spokesman in Iraq said Friday.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt also told a Jewish group and community leaders at the headquarters of Fifth Third Bank downtown that troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan are too large to maintain indefinitely. The impression of a U.S. occupation to Islamic hardliners makes it less desirable to maintain the type of commitment the military has maintained in Germany and Japan since World War II, he said.

Still, that doesn't mean there will be a drawdown soon from troop levels of about 127,000 in Iraq and 23,000 in Afghanistan, he said.

The Army has said it plans to hand over security control for specific regions to Iraqi units gradually and to move U.S. forces to larger bases, from which they can act in a support or reserve role.

"We're encouraged by the progress the Iraqis are making. But this is a military that is going to need our assistance for some time," Kimmitt said in an interview.

Kimmitt, deputy director for strategy and planning at the U.S. Central Command in Iraq, said conditions will determine when the Army begins to bring some troops home.

"I know you don't like to hear the standard mantra, but that just happens to be right," he said.

Kimmitt said any removal of U.S. troops would be commensurate with the training and deployment of Iraqi forces, so there would be, in effect, no drawdown, a word he dislikes.

"Drawdown evokes surrender - it's the perception of the word, not the definition of the word," he said.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said this week that although Gen. George Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq, was considering sending home two combat brigades - about 7,000 troops - by September without replacing them, it was only one of several proposals under consideration.

Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, who visited Iraq in January, noted that Casey has said he hopes to send some troops home by late summer.

"We are already starting to adjust our numbers in Iraq," Kimmitt said. "It will be a fraction of what it is today - a much smaller fraction than most people would think."

He said the thrust of the long war goes beyond military victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also emphasizes security and stability throughout the Middle East.

Kimmitt's appearance was sponsored by the Jewish Institute for National Security and Affairs and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.