Op-Ed: “A Troop Drawdown That Would Fail Iraq”

As recent media reports suggest that the Obama administration has made a decision to reduce the number of troops in Iraq, possibly to as few as 3,000. However, administration officials have denied any decision has been made on troop levels in Iraq. In an editorial by senators John McCain(R-AR) , Joseph I. Lieberman (I-CT), and Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC), they argued that “such an approach would disregard the recommendations of our military commanders, jeopardize Iraq’s tenuous stability and needlessly put at risk all of the hard-won gains the United States has achieved there at enormous cost in blood and treasure.”

Throughout their travels in Iraq and meetings with local Iraqi and U.S. military officials, they consistently heard  ”is that Iraq’s security and stability will require a continuing — though greatly reduced — U.S. military presence after the end of this year, when our current security agreement with Iraq expires.” They also noted that many officials note that 3,000 troops is no where close to the 10,000-25,000 troops need to carry out essential missions post-2011. In a testimony by Ambassador James Jeffrey and General Lloyd Austin in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee in February, stated that there still exisits significant gaps in capability in the Iraqi Security Forces that cannot be closed before the end of 2011.

Although a new security agreement can be negotiated, they note that the Iraqi’s are not the ones pushing for troop reductions. In fact, all of Iraq’s major political blocs, except for the Sadrists, agreed on negotiations for a U.S. military mission for after this year. This gives a clear message that they want American troops to stay. Many say that the current budget crisis facing America is restricting the need for more American troops in Iraq. “We strongly disagree. Whether the United States has 3,000 troops or a larger force in Iraq will make no meaningful difference to our budgetary situation. But it may prove the difference between a stable, democratic, U.S.-aligned Iraq vs. one that slides back into chaos.”

Overall, the Senators state that they want President Barack Obama to listen to the proposals that reject the call for a smaller troop presence in Iraq, as that would be detrimental to U.S. national security and foreign policy.