Friday, July 21, 2006
Military RhetIraq: More US Troops Going to Baghdad
Who: General John P. Abizaid, Commander of US Central Command
Source: The Dallas Morning News
Quotes: From article titled, "More troops to be deployed to Baghdad, general says"
The top U.S. commander for the Middle East said Friday that the escalating sectarian violence in Baghdad had become a greater worry than the insurgency and that plans were being drawn up to move additional forces to the Iraqi capital.
"The situation with sectarian violence in Baghdad is very serious," said U.S. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, speaking in an interview Friday. "The country can deal with the insurgency better than it can with the sectarian violence, and it needs to move decisively against the sectarian violence now."
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, had been meeting with Iraq's defense minister, Abdel Kader Jassem al-Obeidi, to hammer out a plan to improve security. The plan included the deployment in the Baghdad area of additional troops, Iraqi as well as American.
"There is a very serious effort to make sure that it is not just weighted with additional U.S. capability, but also additional Iraqi capability," Abizaid said. "Clearly, it will require that we move whatever combat power that the commanders on the ground there think is appropriate, whether Iraqi or American. And I think it will be a combination of both."
The shifting of additional forces to the Baghdad area is expected to come at the expense of troop levels in other parts of the country. It is not yet clear whether the increased violence will prompt U.S. commanders to modify their longer-term plans for troop reductions.
"Definitely one of the things that is not going well is the national police and police reform, and it needs to be carefully looked at," he [Abizaid] said. "You can't allow sectarian politics to influence the ministries."
Source: The Dallas Morning News
Quotes: From article titled, "More troops to be deployed to Baghdad, general says"
The top U.S. commander for the Middle East said Friday that the escalating sectarian violence in Baghdad had become a greater worry than the insurgency and that plans were being drawn up to move additional forces to the Iraqi capital.
"The situation with sectarian violence in Baghdad is very serious," said U.S. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, speaking in an interview Friday. "The country can deal with the insurgency better than it can with the sectarian violence, and it needs to move decisively against the sectarian violence now."
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, had been meeting with Iraq's defense minister, Abdel Kader Jassem al-Obeidi, to hammer out a plan to improve security. The plan included the deployment in the Baghdad area of additional troops, Iraqi as well as American.
"There is a very serious effort to make sure that it is not just weighted with additional U.S. capability, but also additional Iraqi capability," Abizaid said. "Clearly, it will require that we move whatever combat power that the commanders on the ground there think is appropriate, whether Iraqi or American. And I think it will be a combination of both."
The shifting of additional forces to the Baghdad area is expected to come at the expense of troop levels in other parts of the country. It is not yet clear whether the increased violence will prompt U.S. commanders to modify their longer-term plans for troop reductions.
"Definitely one of the things that is not going well is the national police and police reform, and it needs to be carefully looked at," he [Abizaid] said. "You can't allow sectarian politics to influence the ministries."
