Gold9472
03-17-2006, 06:57 PM
Gen. Cites Plans to Increase Iraqi Control
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5693060,00.html
By ROBERT BURNS
Friday March 17, 2006 3:46 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military's goal is to have Iraqi security forces in control of 75 percent of the country's territory by this summer, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Baghdad said Friday.
That is more ambitious than President Bush's statement on Monday that his aim was to have Iraqis control more territory than the U.S.-led coalition by the end of 2006 - a process that Bush said would free up more American troops to focus on training the Iraqi forces and hunting down the chief terrorists inside Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, told reporters at the Pentagon that he had no firm estimate of how much territory the Iraqi forces currently control, but he said it was less than 50 percent.
Chiarelli did not further define the 75 percent goal, such as saying whether it would include some or all of the most troubled territory such as the area north and west of Baghdad known as the Sunni Triangle. The insurgent violence in Iraq is confined largely to that area and Anbar province west of the capital.
Speaking by videoteleconference from his headquarters, Chiarelli also said that while he believes Iraq is "far away'' from civil war, the sectarian tensions created by a Feb. 22 attack on a Shiite shrine in Samarra mean "the possibility of civil war may be higher today than it has in the last three years.''
He repeatedly stressed that he does not believe civil war will break out. "There are a vast majority of Iraqis in the middle, who don't see the divisions that are being highlighted'' by reports about sectarian attacks, he added.
Chiarelli also said news reports in the weeks following the Feb. 22 mosque bombing have exaggerated the extent of sectarian violence.
Earlier Friday, retired Gen. Richard Myers said on CBS's "The Early Show'' there are many things the military "could have done differently'' in Iraq from the start of the conflict three years ago this month.
"I can't single out one thing, but I can assure you that if we had this to do again, we'd look at different ways to do it,'' he said, adding, "we made mistakes, absolutely.''
Myers retired from his post as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last fall.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5693060,00.html
By ROBERT BURNS
Friday March 17, 2006 3:46 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military's goal is to have Iraqi security forces in control of 75 percent of the country's territory by this summer, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Baghdad said Friday.
That is more ambitious than President Bush's statement on Monday that his aim was to have Iraqis control more territory than the U.S.-led coalition by the end of 2006 - a process that Bush said would free up more American troops to focus on training the Iraqi forces and hunting down the chief terrorists inside Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, told reporters at the Pentagon that he had no firm estimate of how much territory the Iraqi forces currently control, but he said it was less than 50 percent.
Chiarelli did not further define the 75 percent goal, such as saying whether it would include some or all of the most troubled territory such as the area north and west of Baghdad known as the Sunni Triangle. The insurgent violence in Iraq is confined largely to that area and Anbar province west of the capital.
Speaking by videoteleconference from his headquarters, Chiarelli also said that while he believes Iraq is "far away'' from civil war, the sectarian tensions created by a Feb. 22 attack on a Shiite shrine in Samarra mean "the possibility of civil war may be higher today than it has in the last three years.''
He repeatedly stressed that he does not believe civil war will break out. "There are a vast majority of Iraqis in the middle, who don't see the divisions that are being highlighted'' by reports about sectarian attacks, he added.
Chiarelli also said news reports in the weeks following the Feb. 22 mosque bombing have exaggerated the extent of sectarian violence.
Earlier Friday, retired Gen. Richard Myers said on CBS's "The Early Show'' there are many things the military "could have done differently'' in Iraq from the start of the conflict three years ago this month.
"I can't single out one thing, but I can assure you that if we had this to do again, we'd look at different ways to do it,'' he said, adding, "we made mistakes, absolutely.''
Myers retired from his post as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last fall.