US for maintaining small force in Iraq

Baghdad: The US military are expecting to pull out most of its troops by late 2008 or early 2009 but is considering maintaining a smaller force for a much longer term, revealed a report in the Washington Post.

The report is based on the assessment of US military officers and strategists in Baghdad, who are grappling with not just whether the US troop presence will be cut, but how quickly, to what level and to what purpose.

According to official assessment cited in the report, the US military has recognized that a short-term political reconciliation in Iraq is unlikely and a cut in American forces would demonstrate to anti-American factions that the occupation will not last forever while reassuring Iraqi allies that the United States does not intend to abandon the country.

The American thinking is that underneath the anti-US rhetoric, even Shiite radicals such as cleric Moqtada Al Sadr don't really want to see a total US pullout, especially while they feel threatened by Sunni insurgents, the report in Washington Post claimed. Also, officials think any Iraqi government will prefer to keep a small US combat force to deter foreign intervention.