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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House rejected calls for setting a precise timetable for a US withdrawal from Iraq, even as a new poll showed almost six in 10 Americans want at least a partial pullout of US forces. ADVERTISEMENT "We will leave when we complete the mission," spokesman Scott McClellan said a day after a representative in US President George W. Bush's Republican party said he would push legislation fixing a firm schedule for such a withdrawal. "We are not going to stay a day longer than what is necessary. But what we're working to achieve in Iraq is...

The White House dismissed calls on Monday for setting a date to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq as a new poll showed a growing number of Americans believe the United States should pull its forces out. President Bush has repeatedly said that U.S. troops would leave Iraq once Iraqi forces were trained to take over the security of their country."The president's talked about how timetables send the wrong message," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "It would send the wrong message to the terrorists and it would send the wrong message to the Iraqi people. They have shown they're committed...

A Republican congressman who voted for the Iraq war said Sunday that "we've done about as much as we can do" in the country and that the reason for invading Iraq has proven false. Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina will be among the lawmakers introducing legislation this week calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq. "When I look at the number of men and women who have been killed - it's almost 1,700 now, in addition to close to 12,000 have been severely wounded - and I just feel that the reason of going...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A Republican congressman who voted for the Iraq war said Sunday that "we've done about as much as we can do'' in the country and that the reason for invading Iraq has proven false. Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina will be among the lawmakers introducing legislation this week calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq. "When I look at the number of men and women who have been killed -- it's almost 1,700 now, in addition to close to 12,000 have been severely wounded -- and I just feel that...

WASHINGTON -- The military announced the killing of four more U.S. soldiers on Sunday, pushing the American death toll past 1,700. The news comes as police found the bullet-riddled bodies of 28 people -- many thought to be Sunni Arabs -- buried in shallow graves or dumped streetside in Baghdad. GOP Congressman Wants Iraq Timetable A Republican lawmaker who voted for the Iraq war now says he supports a timetable for the United States to withdraw. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., told ABC's "This Week" that the U.S. has done about as much as it can do in Iraq. He said...

Faced with plummeting public support for the war in Iraq, a growing number of members of Congress are reevaluating the reasons for the invasion and demanding the Bush administration produce a plan for withdrawing US troops.A bipartisan group of House members is drafting a resolution that calls on the administration to present a strategy for getting the United States out of Iraq, reflecting an increasing restlessness about the war in a chamber that 2 1/2 years ago voted overwhelmingly to support the use of force in Iraq. The House International Relations Committee on Thursday approved a similar proposal, 32 to...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES AL AMARAH, Iraq -- British forces could begin pulling out of one southern Iraqi province as early as this year, said Lt. Col. Andrew Williams, the senior commander here. "In three or four months, we could begin withdrawing from Maysan province," Col. Williams, 43, said during an interview at his headquarters at Camp Abu Naji near Al Amarah, 100 miles north of Basrah and home to more than 1,000 soldiers with Britain's Coldstream Guards and Royal Hussars regiments. Two soldiers from this camp have died in insurgent attacks in the past seven weeks, the most recent, 21-year-old...

UNITED NATIONS - Iraq's foreign minister said he's concerned the United States may pull out of the country before the army and police are ready to take responsibility for the nation's security Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari meets with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley on Thursday, and his wide-ranging agenda includes "the continued engagement" of the United States in Iraq. The Iraqi minister came to New York to urge the U.N. Security Council to extend the mandate of the U.S.-led multinational force, saying Iraqi troops and police cannot yet defend the country against...

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari could not give a firm date today for the withdrawal of US-led forces, saying that his country’s police and army were not yet ready to take control of Iraq’s security. He said efforts were being made to bolster confidence in his government’s ability to deal with a raging insurgency that has killed thousands of people, including more than 620 since his government was announced on April 28. They includes the largest security operation in Baghdad since the fall of Saddam Hussein more than two years ago, a massive effort announced today that involves more than 40,000...

The United States has been quitley mulling the prospect that Iraq would break up into autonomous regions.The Council on Foreign Relations, which usually reflects State Department thinking, has recommended the restructuring of Iraq into six states under a single national government.Officials said the Bush Administration has been discussing options for Iraq following the withdrawal of troops in 2007, Middle East Newsline reported.Author David Phillips, a former advisor to the US government, proposed the establishment of two to three states dominated by Shiites.Another state would be comprised of mostly Sunnis and a third state would be Kurdish. Baghdad would be a...

THE Government today underlined its promise not to pull out of Iraq "before the job is done". The Foreign Office said UK troops would stay in the country as long as the Iraqi government wanted them to. The multinational force’s mandate is due to expire in December when the Iraqis will have agreed a constitution by referendum and held elections.

TOKYO - After kissing their babies and hugging their wives, 200 Japanese soldiers in combat fatigues lined up at a base in central Japan last weekend under the "Rising Sun" flag for what has become a familiar ritual — the send-off for troops on their way to Iraq. But this batch of soldiers may be among the last. Nearly 18 months into its most ambitious overseas military operation since World War II, Japan is now considering whether to join a growing list of countries pulling out or scaling back their operations in Iraq in the coming months. A pullout by...

It is time to ponder the strategic impact of the casualty figures. Those that are relevant to this analysis are widely familiar. The U.S. has lost approximately 1,500 dead in military action and 10,000 wounded, and we continue to lose, dead, about 50 soldiers every month. The Iraqis (using loose counts) die and are wounded at about ten times the U.S. rate. Moreover, the Iraqi deaths have increased substantially since the national election in January. We know philosophically that all deaths should be counted equally, since we are all God’s children. But it isn’t surprising that U.S. concern should focus...

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan will pull its troops out of Iraq in December when the term of its current humanitarian mission expires, local media quoted government officials as saying. The government is expected to notify parliament and countries concerned as early as September after studying the situation in Iraq, Kyodo News reported late Wednesday, quoting unnamed government sources. It will then switch its aid mainly to official development assistance, it said. Officials were not available for comment on Thursday, a national holiday. The arrangement is meant to coincide with the scheduled launch of a permanent Iraqi government and the expiration...

The Daily Telegraph, British newspaper, revealed a confidential document that have been distributed among high rank American military officials, which states that the American occupation army scheduled next December, as a date for handing the security responsibility to the Iraqi army and security units and withdrawal from Iraq. In its issue, published today, Monday, the newspaper stated that it is the first time a date is specified for ending the control of the American forces over the rebellion in Iraq. It explained that this suggestion shows that the American army would start in withdrawal from guarding and hence the gradual...

US hoping to start its withdrawal from Iraq in December By Oliver Poole in Baghdad(Filed: 02/05/2005)The American military has set a target of December for handing over responsibility for security to Iraqi army and police units, says a classified document being circulated among senior officers.It is the first time that a date has been put forward for the phasing back of US involvement in controlling the insurgency that has raged for more than two years. Iraqi police at the scene of a car bombing in Baghdad yesterday. 98 police were killed in March The proposal envisages that after the planned...

The American military has set a target of December for handing over responsibility for security to Iraqi army and police units, says a classified document being circulated among senior officers. It is the first time that a date has been put forward for the phasing back of US involvement in controlling the insurgency that has raged for more than two years. However, the deadline illustrates American confidence that the development of Iraq's security forces is proceeding as planned. The proposal envisages that after the planned election of a five-year parliament in December the American military would withdraw from patrolling, starting...

U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq will likely start pulling out in large numbers by the middle of next year, Iraq's national security advisor said on Sunday. "I will be very surprised if they (U.S. and other foreign troops) don't think very seriously of starting pulling out probably by the end of the first half of next year," said Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie in an interview with CNN's "Late Edition." When pressed on exact numbers expected to leave, Al-Rubaie said this depended on how quickly Iraqi troops could be trained and armed to take over. Twenty-five months...

A long-awaited strategic guidance document was issued to US military commanders in Iraq earlier this month, outlining specific milestones in the handover of the security mission to Iraqi security forces. The strategic guidance shifts the main effort of coalition forces in Iraq from combat operations to partnering with Iraqi security forces. The strategy states that the Iraqi Army, along with security forces from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, are to assume the internal defence mission in Iraq by December this year. Critics of previous versions of the US' Iraq strategy pointed to a lack of specific guidance as to the...

The other day I entered a business establishment and overheard the following comments contained in a vitriolic, rabidly anti-American discussion. If I hadn’t known better I would have thought I was somewhere in “old Europe.” “They only did it for the oil...they don’t have an exit strategy...I have kids who are Draft age... this is really a mess.” If one hadn’t heard the same from Kerry (who was the other guy?) during the recent Democrat election debacle, the discussion might have come as a shock, but it didn’t. Still, it is incomprehensible that adult Americans, apart from blind stupidity or...