The Hindu : International : Pentagon orders review of Iraq strategy

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Sunday, Jan 09, 2005

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International

Pentagon orders review of Iraq strategy

By Julian Borger

WASHINGTON, JAN. 8. The Pentagon has ordered a comprehensive review of its Iraq strategy in the face of mounting casualties and an increasing strain on the U.S. army and its reserve ranks, it was reported yesterday.

A retired four-star General, Gary Luck, is due to arrive in Iraq next week to conduct an ``open-ended'' rethink of tactics, troop levels and the training of Iraqi forces, reflecting growing concern in Washington over the resilience of the Iraqi insurgency.

``He will have a very wide canvas to draw on,'' Lawrence Di Rita, the Pentagon spokesman, told journalists. General Luck is due to report to the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, within a month. ``We've always known the insurgents were going to do everything they can to disrupt the elections, and that is going to continue through the elections, and even if the elections are successful, it is going to go through to the spring,'' said Robert Killebrew, a retired army colonel and counter-insurgency specialist.

The U.S. President, George W. Bush, said yesterday: ``What you're beginning to see is an assessment of how to make sure our policy dovetails with the elections in the post-election period

``And that's precisely why the assessment team is going to Iraq: to make sure that, at this historic moment in the history of Iraq, there is a focused, determined strategy to help the new government to stand up the forces necessary to defend themselves.''

Three weeks before the Iraqi elections, the commander of U.S. ground forces, Lieutenant-General Thomas Metz, conceded that significant areas in four of the country's 18 provinces, Baghdad, Anbar, Nineveh and Salahadin — all Sunni areas — were not secure enough to hold a vote.

A senior U.S. officer in Baghdad warned yesterday that the violence could worsen dramatically.

One of the key issues General Luck will address is the training of Iraqi forces. They represent the key to the U.S. exit strategy, but their numbers and performance so far have disappointed some U.S. commanders. —

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