Text 29259, 130 rader
Skriven 2007-07-16 17:49:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Iraq
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/world/middleeast/16commander.html?ei=5
065&en=15503e23ff4ea637&ex=1185249600&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

July 16, 2007
U.S. General in Iraq Speaks Strongly Against Troop Pullout 
By JOHN F. BURNS

BAGHDAD, July 15 — An American general directing a major part of the 
offensive aimed at securing Baghdad said Sunday that it would take until 
next spring for the operation to succeed, and that an early American 
withdrawal would clear the way for “the enemy to come backö to areas now 
being cleared of insurgents.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commanding 15,000 American and about 7,000 Iraqi 
troops on Baghdad’s southern approaches, spoke more forcefully than any 
American commander to date in urging that the so-called troop surge 
ordered by President Bush continue into the spring of 2008. That would 
match the deadline of March 31 set by the Pentagon, which has said that 
limits on American troops available for deployment will force an end to 
the increase by then.

“It’s going to take us through the summer and fall to deny the enemy his 
sanctuariesö south of Baghdad, General Lynch said at a news briefing in 
the capital. “And then it’s going to take us through the first of the 
year and into the springö to consolidate the gains now being made by the 
American offensive and to move enough Iraqi forces into the cleared 
areas to ensure that they remain so, he said.

The general spoke as momentum is gathering in Congress for an early 
withdrawal date for the 160,000 American troops, as well as an 
accelerated end to the troop buildup, which have increased American 
combat casualties in the past three months to the highest levels of the 
war. In renewed debate over the past week, Congressional opponents of 
the war have demanded a withdrawal deadline, with some proposing that 
Congress use its war-financing powers to end the troop increase much 
sooner, possibly this fall.

General Lynch, a blunt-spoken, cigar-smoking Ohio native who commands 
the Third Infantry Division, said that all the American troops that 
began an offensive south of Baghdad in mid-June were part of the five-
month-old troop buildup, and that they were making “significantö gains 
in areas that were previously enemy sanctuaries. Pulling back before the 
job was completed, he said, would create “an environment where the enemy 
could come back and fill the void.ö

He implied that an early withdrawal would amount to an abandonment of 
Iraqi civilians who he said had rallied in support of the American and 
Iraqi troops, and would leave the civilians exposed to renewed brutality 
by extremist groups. “When we go out there, the first question they ask 
is, ‘Are you staying?’ ö he said. “And the second question is, ‘How can 
we help?’ ö He added, “What we hear is, ‘We’ve had enough of people 
attacking our villages, attacking our homes, and attacking our 
children.’ ö

General Lynch said his troops had promised local people that they would 
stay in the areas they had taken from the extremists until enough Iraqi 
forces were available to take over, and said this had helped sustain “a 
groundswellö of feeling against the extremists. He said locals had 
pinpointed hide-outs of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, an extremist group that 
claims to have ties to Osama bin Laden’s network, that had been used to 
send suicide bombers into Baghdad and they had helped troops locate 170 
large arms caches. The general said the locals had started neighborhood 
patrol units called “Iraqi provincial volunteersö that supplied their 
own weapons and ammunition. 

The general declined to be drawn into what he called “the big debate in 
Washingtonö over the war, saying American troops would continue to 
battle the enemy until ordered to do otherwise. But he made it clear 
that his sympathies were with the Iraqis in his battle area, covering an 
area about the size of West Virginia, mostly between the Tigris and 
Euphrates rivers, that extends about 80 miles south of Baghdad and 
includes 4 of Iraq’s 18 provinces. The offensive he commands is part of 
a wider push by American and Iraqi forces in the areas surrounding 
Baghdad, and in the capital, that began in February.

“What they’re worried about is our leaving,ö he said. “And our answer 
is, ‘We’re staying,’ because my order from the corps commander is that 
we don’t leave the battlespace until we can hand over to the Iraqi 
security forces.ö To hold on to recent gains, he said, would require at 
least a third more Iraqi troops than he now has, and they would have to 
come from other battle areas, or from new units yet to complete their 
training. “Everybody wants things to happen overnight, and that’s not 
going to happen,ö he said.

General Lynch’s outspoken approach contrasted with the more cautious 
remarks made recently by other senior American officers, including the 
top American commander here, Gen. David H. Petraeus. General Petraeus 
has said in recent interviews that the troop buildup has made 
substantial gains. But he has declined to say whether he will urge a 
continuation of it when he returns to Washington by mid-September to 
make a report on the war to President Bush and Congress that was made 
mandatory by war-financing legislation this spring.

General Lynch said he was “amazedö at the cooperation his troops were 
encountering in previously hostile areas. He cited the village of Al 
Taqa, near the Euphrates about 20 miles southwest of Baghdad, where four 
American soldiers were killed in an ambush on May 12 and three others 
were taken hostage. One of the hostages was later found dead, leaving 
two soldiers missing. Brig. Gen. Jim Huggins, a deputy to General Lynch, 
said an Iraqi commander in the area had told him on Saturday that women 
and children in the village had begun using plastic pipes to tap on 
streetlamps and other metal objects to warn when extremists were in the 
area planting roadside bombs and planning other attacks.

“The tapping,ö General Huggins said, was a signal that “these people 
have had enough.ö

General Lynch also challenged an argument often made by American 
lawmakers who want to end the military involvement here soon: that Iraqi 
troops have ducked much of the hard fighting, and often proved 
unreliable because of the strong sectarian influence exercised by the 
competition for power between Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political 
factions.

“I don’t know,ö he said, how American war critics had concluded that the 
new American-trained Iraqi Army was not up to the fight. “I find that 
professionally offensive,ö he said, after noting that there were “many 
Iraqi heroesö of the fighting south of Baghdad. “They’re competent,ö he 
said. “There’s just not enough of them.ö 

General Lynch said that he and other American commanders were worried 
that extremist groups under attack by the buildup might retaliate with a 
spectacular, focused attack on American troops aimed at tipping the 
argument in Washington in favor of withdrawal. 

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