Posted on 12/21/2006 5:45:21 AM PST by TexKat
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers in Iraq urged their new boss on Thursday to send reinforcements, after their generals told Defense Secretary Robert Gates they were concerned a surge might delay the time when Iraqis take control.
Stung by defeat at mid-term elections last month, President Bush is expected to announce a new strategy in January for the unpopular war, which has so far killed nearly 3,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Bush said on Wednesday one option under review was a short- term increase in U.S. troop levels but that he had not yet made up his mind.
Gates, in his first week on the job after replacing Donald Rumsfeld, is consulting widely for advice on the war effort.
He met U.S. commanders and the Iraqi defense minister on Wednesday and is due to meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday. He said U.S. commanders had expressed concern that a surge in U.S. forces might delay the time when Iraqis can assume control for security.
On Thursday he had breakfast with ordinary soldiers to sound out their views on troop levels, a timeline for training Iraqis, sectarian leanings in the Iraqi security forces and the "caliber and discipline" of Iraqi soldiers and their military leaders.
"Sir, I think we need to just keep doing what we're doing," Specialist Jason Glenn told Gates.
"I really think we need more troops here. With more presence on the ground, more troops might hold them (the insurgents) off long enough to where we can get the Iraqi army trained up."
No soldier present said U.S. forces should be brought home, and none said current troop levels were adequate, as some commanders have argued.
IRAQI POLICE RECRUITS KILLED
Training and building up Iraqi security forces is a key pillar of U.S. and Iraqi hopes of transferring responsibility to Iraqi authorities and allowing U.S. troops to go home.
Reuters Pictures
Editors Choice: Best pictures from the last 24 hours. View Slideshow
But in a reminder of the challenge, a suicide bomber killed 10 people at a police recruitment center in Baghdad on Thursday, the latest in a long line of attacks on police and the army.
Soldiers told Gates that Iraqi security forces were improving but that many did not show up for work.
They also cited the challenge of training Iraqis who have ties to sectarian militias and who give those groups information about upcoming operations. One soldier said members of the Iraqi army see themselves as Iraqis but that local police identify themselves as Shi'ite or Sunni Arab.
Gates has given little indication of what strategies he will recommend to the president after returning from Iraq, but he echoed comments from Bush this week that America is not winning.
"However you characterize it, it's not good enough," Gates told the soldiers about America's progress in the war.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Bush spoke of setbacks this year but predicted victory and insisted the United States would neither abandon Iraq nor be driven from the region.
"They can't run us out of the Middle East," he said. "They can't intimidate America."
Bush also said the coming year would require "difficult choices and additional sacrifices".
Reuters Pictures
Editors Choice: Best pictures from the last 24 hours. View Slideshow
The U.S. military reported three more deaths on Thursday, two in the restive western province of Anbar and one killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.
(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan in Washington, Mariam Karouny and Ross Colvin in Baghdad)
My guess is that those are all Aggies in that pic.
#11. "Thanks to you, Reuters (and the rest of the anti-American MSM)"
That's why they're known as the enemedia.
:-(
Prayers for your grandson-in-law. You're right - it's the troops that risk their lives every day outside the wire. My son was one of them. Frankly, his CO was dumb as a post. When he did go outside the wire, he had air support, about 10 Bradleys and anything else he could authorize. AND always caused problems for the troops who were out there everyday and night. Thank God the platoon LT's and platoon Sgt.'s had more sense than he did. "Hands tied", good lady, is the honest truth!
Cue the Leftists at Daily Kos saying "da troops were threatened with death to say this!!!11111"
yea my grandson-in-law told me his CO was dumb too. So the high up do not always know what is going on and the grunts do. Hey and the other guys had the same opinion. The CO had to be at a different location and they were very glad.
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