Top US Commander: We May Have To Stay Longer In Iraq To Combat al-Qaeda

Times London:

The activities of al-Qaeda in two of Iraq's most troubled cities could keep US combat troops engaged beyond the June 30 deadline for their withdrawal, the top US commander in the country has warned.

US troop numbers in Mosul and Baqubah, in the north of the country, could rise rather than fall over the next year if necessary, General Ray Odierno told The Times in his first interview with a British newspaper since taking over from General David Petraeus in September.

Read the whole story: Times London

Comments

[RMJ50]

Classic asymmetric warfare - 100 Al Quaeda will tie up an entire U. S. military.

Maybe we should take some lessons from the terrorists - massive force is not the answer.

If you want peace, train and arm the Iraqi women.

[rblaquinta]

Obama is not going to change..th­ose troops are coming out!!!!! Violence won't end and he knows it...they are coming out!!! This up violence is not and should not be a big suprise to anyone..

[hark]

This is beyond irony. We have created the "enemy" that we have to stay and fight.

Meanwhile, nobody knows why we went there in the first place. I hope it was for the oil, because if it wasn't, what on earth was worth all this waste and slaughter?

Imagine, if we'd taken that trillion wasted in these two horrible wars and invested them in alternative energy, solar power, electric vehicles.

Makes you want to cry. How can a country be this blindingly stupid?

Meanwhile, the rich get richer and richer.

And nobody is going to investigate the financial sector meltdown, any more than they are going to investigate what drove us into Iraq.

[SocialistDistortion]

Ol' Ray better start learning pretty quickly that this is not George Bush, who let the generals dictate Iraq policy. In case he forgot, the military is civilian led, not a junta. If Barack (stupidly) decides to abandon the June 30 goal and stay, then the US will stay. But if Barack goes with the drawdown as scheduled, then there will be a drawdown.

Plain and simple. If he can't live with that, then resign. And then he can become a mercenary and spend all the time he wants in Iraq fighting "terra".

[liminal67]

Hello....t­rouble...g­oodbye....­money...

http://pitchbendpost.blogspot.com/

[demigod]

So the DEADLINE to leave is nothing of the sort - it's just a made up line in the ever shifting sand, and if the General doesn't like the way things look, the DEADLINE will come and go with nothing changing. I wish every deadline I had to make was like that. 5 more dead Americans today. Iraq stinks to high heaven, and I don't care who rules it. These idiots have been killing each other for centuries, only another idiot like George Bush could think we can do anything about it. Barack better not listen to the Generals, war is their business. It's like asking a prostitute whether having sex is a good idea. I marched in the D.C. streets against Bush's war many times, I can do it again if President Obama needs "guidance" on this issue. When the Republicans are praising Obama's Iraq and Afghanistan policies, you know something is wrong.

[Rog49Thomas]

And they said that Iraq wasn't a success.

Before we invaded Brother Saddam kept AlQaeda out.

We let them in and now we have to fight them there forever.

It's hard not to admire the logic of the genius who devised this plan.

Step forward former President Pan for the shoes.

[MountainPenelope]

True.

Bush made the mess and bought Al-Qaeda into Iraq. How about a tax lien on Bush to help pay for the clean up.

[Ergon]

The War has so far cost a trillion dollars. Print more money indeed, and see what that does to the economy. Bring the troops home!

[kimleehan]

We'll make ten trillion from the oil.

[MountainPenelope]

Is the oil worth all the lives? Does ten trillion cover the cost to the families whose children, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters have been sacrificed for it?

[iamrightagain]

Get this straight and keep it in your mind....

The USA will always be in Iraq....th­at is, was and always will be the plan. The same goes for Afghanistan.

These are long range plans...th­is country does no waste blood and treasure for a two or three year war. It's about oil, power, location, central Asia, Russians, China.

[Rog49Thomas]

And the love (for a certain country) that dares not speak its name.

[VPN]

Yep.

[wadenelson1]

So in other words the SURGE did NOT work?

[gladys46]

I strain to think of anything GW & repubs did in 8 yrs that WORKED !!!

[VPN]

His success's are attached to those WMD's that werenot/willnot be found.

[Rog49Thomas]

Rather successfully picked your pocket and got away.

[gino618]

Of course it worked - the # of casualties has dropped to all-time lows. That is progress.

When will you on the left understand that timetables do not work in war?

[naturallight]

How long should a war last genius? I am starting to agree with Rangel's Draft policy. Send some rich kids and see how long the adventure against fake terrorists lasts.

[iamvalid]

Tell me again about how we ended up in Iraq?

I keep forgetting.

[gladys46]

Reports as we post are that 5 of our troops have lost their lives in Mosul !!!

GW's surge worked !

[kimleehan]

Al-Qaeda don't want us to leave Iraq, Since their in Afghanistan, Pakistan.

[Nova16]

We got there by lies, deceit and chicanery based on WMDs, mushroom clouds, yellow cake that were used as propaganda by the Bush administration and the corporate media to start a war for greed and profit. Next question?

[gino618]

Don't leave out all the 'propaganda' that the dems in congress used as well - in fact it was the same as the 'propaganda' that the western world was using -

It was bad intelligence. And Republicans and Democrats had access to the same information and were on the same page leading up to the war - go back and read the statements from BOTH parties and they sound the same.

[freddiefreeloader]

OIL, its all about the oil, they have it, we want it.

[kimleehan]

Hey I can buy that, but not W.M.D.s or Democracy and Al- Qaeda.

[elcojonu]

The Brass WILL NEVER be able to bring themselves to believe that they haven't been VICTORIUOUS in another thirld world country engagement. They're 0 for 3 ( Korea, Nam and Iraq ) with a shot at been 0 for 4 ( Korea, Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan ).
THAT'S what's at work here.

[SpoAct]

[Nova16]

We need a "surge" to get the troops out of Iraq. The lunacy has run its course. The fundamentalist Shiites are in power, the Sunnis are angry and ready to "bring it on" once again and al-Qaeda is creating havoc as usual. The attempts to bring "democracy" to Iraq are just as inept as the "war" was mismanaged from start to finish-- no planning, no strategy, ineffective tactics, insufficient logistics and supplies. Bush's "surge" which was championed by the republicans as the greatest military maneuver in history was actually an admission that the original number of troops sent to fight this phony war were insufficient to begin with and couldn't control an angry, divided country with a population of 20,000,000. On the sixth anniversary of Bush's war, he was burned in effigy in Iraq.

[BlueStateMan]

Too bad it was only an effigy.

[judyc]

Yep--too bad.

[gino618]

Nice - advocating the k i l l i n g of a US President - that is illegal, you know - no matter who it is

[ticonderoga]

The only thing the "surge" was, was a thinly masked attempt to funnel money and arms to the "bad guys" to keep them from shooting at our soldiers. What a disaster.