Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is fielding all kinds of questions these days. He is asked about the need for a draft ("No, of course not."). He gets asked about rifts – past, present and future – with the State Department ("What rifts?"). He is asked about the progress in Iraq after "liberation" and says things are better, even that "the electricity is starting to come back on," albeit almost a year after we arrived to save the day.
One topic he will soon be asked about is the new command he is proposing to ensure continued military control over Iraq after a so-called sovereign government takes the reins in July of this year. In the mode of United States Forces Korea (USFK), centered in Seoul since the mid-fifties and formalized just over 25 years ago, we may well see the permanent establishment of a United States Force Iraq, complete with a four-star general in Baghdad to run the place.
The Washington Times reports this plan, and with their connections into the Pentagon hierarchy, it bears a reading. The new command set for Baghdad would be modeled on USFK, the four-star command within Pacific Command that controls US and South Korean Forces.
When this information is combined with the words of other senior personnel, it becomes more believable. Chairman of the JCS Dick Meyers says that while the length of time U.S. troops will be deployed in Iraq is unknowable, it will be for some time. Retired Lt General Jay Garner is far more forthright, recently telling the Government Executive magazine that our troops will be in Iraq for the next few decades.
http://www.militaryweek.com/withoutreservation.shtml
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