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US commander now doubts troop cutbacks
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-01 09:21
WASHINGTON - Sunni Arab opposition to Iraq's draft constitution has increased
the potential for instability and called into question U.S. hopes for
substantial troop cuts next spring, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Friday.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld,
right, and U.S. Army Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq,
hold a press conference about the war in Iraq, Friday, Sept. 30, 2005, at
the Pentagon [AP] | Gen. George Casey, speaking at
a Pentagon news conference with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said his
prediction in July that "fairly substantial" troop withdrawals could begin next
spring was based on a key assumption: that satisfactory progress on the
political and security fronts would continue.
"Now this constitution has come out, and it didn't come out as the national
compact that we thought it was going to be," he said.
"And there's division there ... and that caused the situation to change a
little bit," Casey said.
Indeed, violence in Iraq has increased as Sunni insurgents strike at Shiites
and try to undermine the October voting on the proposed constitution. At least
200 people have been killed in the past five days, including 13 U.S. service
members.
There are now about 149,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Casey noted that he had told
Congress on Thursday that even with the new uncertainty he still believed some
troop reductions were possible in 2006.
In Princeton, N.J., on Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a
rare reference to the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq — nearly 2,000 — but
said the U.S. must not abandon its mission there.
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