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US general drafts troop withdrawal plan for IraqWASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. general in Iraq has made initial recommendations about how to begin withdrawing the nearly 150,000 U.S. forces there.
General Raymond Odierno has told senior Pentagon leaders how he thinks the U.S. should comply with terms of the security agreement recently signed by the U.S. and Iraq. The agreement calls for American fighting forces to be out of Iraq by 2012.
A senior military official says General David Petraeus, who has overall responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, helped lay out the plan late last week. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Odierno's plan has not been made public.
Odierno foresees a gradual withdrawal over that three-year period. But President-elect Barack Obama has said he wants to be out inside 16 months.
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Troops to Stay Longer in Iraq as Support, U.S. Says Gen. Ray Odierno, said American troops would remain at numerous security outposts in order to help support and train Iraqi forces. “We believe that’s part of our transition teams,” he told reporters in Balad while accompanying Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who arrived on an unannounced trip Saturday.
General Odierno said Saturday, as Pentagon officials have said previously, that the agreement might be renegotiated with the Iraqi government. “Three years is a very long time,” he told reporters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/world/middleeast/14gates.html?pagewanted=print