Gates in Iraq: results to secure Baghdad to be clear by summer
Iraq-USA, Politics, 1/20/2007

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates met yesterday with General George Casey in Basra, Iraq, on his second visit to Iraq within one month, and said that the nation is at a "pivotal moment" and the United States will do whatever is necessary to help the Iraqis fight extremism.

Gates was in southern Iraq to hear what he called "the ground truth" from his commanders, including Army General George Casey, who said it will be summer before the results of a combined Iraq-US security push to make Baghdad neighborhoods safer are clear.

Casey, who commands the multinational forces in Iraq, said it should be possible within the next 60 days to 90 days to evaluate the effect of putting additional Iraqi and US forces into Iraq's capital. Three Iraqi brigades are moving into Baghdad as planned, he said, and Iraq is moving forward to meet a range of security commitments.

"So far so good," Casey said, adding that US military officials continue to monitor the situation to be sure that Iraqi government commitments to eschew political interference with security raids and to deny safe havens to insurgents are met fully. Still, he said, there is a long way to go "before we're done."

Casey predicted that by late summer it will be possible to assess the outcome of the effort to make Baghdad more secure and whether the surge of additional US forces to Iraq that is under way could be reversed. "I think it's probably going to be late summer before... the people in Baghdad feel safe in their neighborhoods," he said.

Gates said US forces have been training and preparing Iraqi security forces, especially the army. An important element of the overall US strategy is "standing them up," he said, by providing Iraqis with training and equipment.

Casey said the number of Iraqi security forces has climbed from zero to 325,000 in three years even as a fight against a virulent insurgency swirls around them. The goal is to train the Iraqi security forces to "a higher level" in 2007 so that by year's end they will be even more capable, he said.

Casey's deputy, British Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb, said in a January 19 press conference in Baghdad that the coalition forces are working alongside and in support of their Iraqi counterparts and that 2007 will be a time of "active transition."

Gates expressed gratitude for the valuable support and contributions being made by 25 other nations in Iraq and singled out the support of Romanian forces by saying, "We're proud of them." Casey said cooperation with the Romanians has been "terrific" and said a Romanian general officer serves on his Multinational Forces-Iraq staff.

But Iraq's security challenges cannot be solved by military means only, Gates said while he checked on the economic and social progress of provincial reconstruction teams in Basra and elsewhere in southern Iraq.

In comments made during an earlier stop in Afghanistan January 18, Gates said the Iraqi government needs even more economic help from other countries. "I think that anything that other governments -- both in the region and outside the region -- can do to help, particularly on the economic reconstruction and development side... would be immensely helpful to the Maliki government and to the Iraqi people," he said.

Previous Stories:
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  US expects quick results from new policy in Iraq   (1/13/2007)
  Iraq for best relations with Syria, Iran, US   (1/13/2007)

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