US Commander in Iraq: Thousands of U.S. troops will remain in cities past summer deadline

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BALAD, Iraq (AP) — Thousands of U.S. troops will remain in Iraqi cities at local security stations after the summer deadline to have combat troops out of the urban areas, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Saturday.

Gen. Raymond Odierno told reporters that the troops would serve as training and mentoring teams, and thus would not be included in the mandate to pull combat troops from the cities. That mandate is included in the recently approved U.S.-Iraq security agreement.

"We believe that's part of our transition teams," said Odierno, who was set to meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates here at this sprawling base in central Iraq.

Odierno said he will make recommendations in the coming weeks on how many of the U.S. forces can be withdrawn from Iraq early next year, but he is not ready yet to make that determination.

Noting that Iraq is set to have three elections in roughly the next year, including provincial elections in January, Odierno said that, "It's important that we maintain enough presence here that we can help them get through this year of transition." He added, "We don't want to take a step backwards because we've made so much progress here."

read: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPhniKRd80K4J7u0lJyrlhBBo8oQD951QO981

[rug]

1. Calling them training and mentoring teams changes nothing.

[bigtree]

5. this is the exact same slippery language that's keeping our troops bogged down there

. . . 'maintaining stability' and 'protecting interests'

[Selatius]

2. Why not simply reclassify the entire force as "advisors" if we're talking loopholes here?

This way, we wouldn't have to go through the expensive burden of shifting around forces under the pre-text that we're actually going to leave. Hey, I'm trying to save taxpayer dollars here.

:sarcasm:

[saigon68]

3. "ADVISORS" really worked fine in my war

Didn't they ??

[bigtree]

4. Harry Truman was the first American President to commit the United States to aiding Vietnam

. . . by sending military advisers there in 1950, while Vietnam was still under French colonial control. By 1960, there were a total of 685 non-combat U.S. advisers in South Vietnam.
http://www.vietnamwar.com/presidentnixonsrole.htm


1960–1963- U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam rise from 900 to 15,000.

1965- U.S. planes begin combat missions over South Vietnam. In June, 23,000 American advisers committed to combat. By end of year over 184,000 U.S. troops in area.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001292.html


March 8, 1965 -- The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam, as 3500 Marines land at China Beach to defend the American air base at Da Nang. They join 23,000 American military advisors already in Vietnam. The arrival of combat troops is considered by some the start of the war, although American military advisors have been in Vietnam for over 10 years.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_did_the_Vietnam_War_start_and_end


At the time of the Kennedy and Diem assassinations, there were 16,000 military advisers in Vietnam. The Kennedy administration had managed to run the war from Washington without the large-scale introduction of American combat troops.
http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/history/index.html

[bigtree]

6. kick

:kick: