US News
US won't leave garrisons behind in Iraq: senior US officer
By Pat Reber
Feb 22, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Washington - The United States does not plan to leave military bases behind in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries in the Middle East, but rather will turn over the 'long war' against al- Qaeda to governments in the region, a key US military strategist said Tuesday.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of plans and strategy for US Central Command, told reporters it 'would be a fundamental error' to keep a large number of ground troops 'garrisoned' in the region.

'After Iraq and Afghanistan are stabilized, we need ... a fraction' of the 200,000 US troops now stationed in the region, Kimmitt said in Washington.

A continuing US military presence in the region would only continue to serve as a provocation for al-Qaeda terrorist propaganda, he said.

Kimmitt's remarks were the latest signal that Washington is laying the groundwork for a withdrawal from Iraq, with more emphasis on training Iraqi police and soldiers and a shifting focus to non- military strategy against the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Last week, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called for a new communications strategy across the government and recognition that changes are necessary in the way public affairs officers do business.

Kimmitt has previously said that the large number of US troops contributed to instability in the 27-country region under his command.

While he did not give a date on Tuesday for withdrawal from Iraq - a subject of continuing debate in the US Congress and public sphere - his remarks clearly indicated that US strategic planning for 'the long war' against al-Qaeda over the next 20 to 25 years included more emphasis on communications, information, the Internet, public diplomacy and financial watch-dogging.

He said the Defence Department needed a closer 'partnership' with the US State Department.

Ironically, during the buildup to the war in Iraq in 2003, defence planners dismissed the State Department's planning for postwar recovery. Critics blame much of the Iraqi insurgency since then on blunders by the US military and the Bush administration's expectation that Iraqis would welcome them with open arms.

A key component laid out by Kimmitt was helping secular governments across the Middle East develop counterterrorism capacity and 'take on the fight themselves.'

He said Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries have already recognized the dangers posed by Islamic extremism to their own governments.

Even Somali warlords in ungovernable Mogadishu, on Africa's northeast coast, have started a counterterrorism strategy, Kimmitt said.

Central Command's area extends from Kyrgyzstan in the north to Kenya in the south, and al-Qaeda has a presence in all of those countries, Kimmitt said.

Kimmitt said the 'long war' was different from the Cold War, when the US garrisoned large numbers of ground forces in Germany and Japan for nearly half a century as a bulwark against communism.

In the Middle East, he said, such a large presence over the long term would be counterproductive and would not 'lead to winning the long war in the future.'

It wasn't clear how one would know when the 'long war' is over, Kimmitt said, but one indicator could be when terrorism is reduced to a 'local law enforcement problem.'

He said the US would only consider keeping a permanent base in Iraq if asked to do so by the government.

'Iraq has not approached us about keeping permanent bases,' Kimmitt said.

US President George W. Bush has warned about the dangers of an early withdrawal from Iraq, saying it would surrender control of the country to terrorists like Osama bin Laden.