WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has been examining the redeployment
of at least two brigades in northern Iraq.
Officials said the redeployment would mark a policy to withdraw from
Iraqi cities and station American soldiers in areas deemed as safe. They
said the Bush administration and Congress were discussing this as an interim
step to a significant U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
"It is clear that we're going to stay in Iraq through 2007," an official
said. "The question is how do we reduce our troop levels and still maintain
Iraq's territorial integrity."
Officials said one option called for the stationing of at least two U.S.
Army brigades in northern Iraq near the border with Iran and Turkey. They
said the redeployment of American units -- which would comprise about 5,000
soldiers -- would be in cooperation with the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish
government.
The Defense Department and U.S. military have been examining at least
three options regarding the U.S. presence in Iraq. Officials said the
options include a troop increase of at least 20,000 through early 2007, an
immediate drawdown, or a long-term presence in safe areas in Iraq.
"If there is a long-term option, then the best place to station troops
is in northern Iraq, where we have Kurdish allies," the official said.
Currently, the U.S. military maintains the bulk of its 140,000 soldiers
in the Anbar and Baghdad provinces. More than 40,000 U.S. troops have been
participating with the Iraq Army in Operation Together Forward, a four-month
campaign to stabilize Baghdad.
The Pentagon has been discussing the proposed U.S. redeployment in
northern Iraq with the Turkish military. Officials said Ankara has expressed
concern that a U.S. military presence in northern Iraq would bolster a
Kurdish drive for independence.
Officials said the Pentagon plans have been coordinated with the
bipartisan Iraqi Study Group. They said ISG, chaired by former Secretary of
State James Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, would release its report in
December 2006.
"Our troops' posture needs to stay where it is as we move to enhance the
capabilities of the Iraqi security forces," Central Command chief Gen. John
Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Nov. 15. "And then we
need to assess whether or not we can bring major combat units out of there."
On Nov. 20, Sen. Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat and a likely
presidential candidate in 2008, called for a U.S. military redeployment in
northern Iraq. Obama, expected to be a leader in the Democratic-controlled
Congress, said the U.S. military must reduce its presence in Iraq.
"Drawing down our troops in Iraq will allow us to redeploy additional
troops to northern Iraq and elsewhere in the region," Obama said in a
foreign policy address. "This force could
help prevent the conflict in Iraq from becoming a wider war [and]
consolidate gains in northern Iraq."
