Wheels starting to crack eh?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1692158,00.html
Colin Powell: US will pull troops out this year
Former Bush aide who urged caution over Iraq signals start of withdrawal by end of 2006
Ned Temko
Sunday January 22, 2006
The Observer
Colin Powell, who warned President Bush on the eve of the Iraq war that US forces would have to stay for the long haul after toppling Saddam, yesterday predicted that troop withdrawals would begin by the end of this year.
He spoke as final results of the elections for a new Iraqi government left the Shia Muslim alliance 10 seats short of an outright parliamentary majority - boosting US and British hopes of a coalition including Sunni and Kurdish groups. Britain's ambassador to Iraq, William Patey, said after the results were announced that an 'inclusive government of national unity' would help chances of a 'significant' withdrawal of the UK's 8,000 troops.
Powell, the former Secretary of State, told The Observer that, while the 'characteristics of the new government' would be clearer in the weeks ahead, the US role was to 'make sure the process [of transition] unfolds successfully'.
During his policy battles with Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon hawks in the run-up to the Iraq war, Powell at one point reportedly cautioned Bush: 'If you break it, you own it.' Since stepping down as the administration's senior diplomat after the 2004 presidential election, he has reiterated his view that America must not cut and run.
But asked whether his 'break-it-and-own it' remark implied staying for as long as it takes to get a fully functioning and stable Iraq, Powell replied: 'No. It means fixing it to the point where we can give ownership back,' - a process which he suggested had taken a major step forward with the election of the new Iraqi government.
'We did break that [Saddam] government and I'm glad we broke it,' he said. 'It was a rotten government and something that should be broken. But we then immediately assumed ownership - and we've been working hard for the past two-plus years to return that ownership.'
Powell, who also served as America's military chief-of-staff, said the specific numbers and pace of US troop pull-outs would be decided by 'my junior officers', generals whom he said he had trained as lieutenants. But he said: 'I think we'll probably see some drawdown in numbers in 2006.
'I hope we'll see a reduction in forces as the Iraqi forces become more competent and the Iraqi political system begins to take hold,' he added.
His remarks came amid growing pressure on Bush's administration over Iraq, where 160,000 US troops form by far the largest share of the international military force and where more than 2,000 American soldiers have been killed.
Recent media reports have suggested the Pentagon has plans in place to begin to reduce the number of US troops, but Bush has emphasised that he remains committed to ensuring that a democratic government in Baghdad and Iraq's own security forces can exert control before any full-scale pull-out.
Powell was speaking after a visit to Britain last week to address a series of fundraising dinners for the JNF, a British Jewish charity. In remarks during his visit, he said that in retrospect he felt the Americans should have committed more troops to the Iraqi invasion and ensured that law, order and a functioning government were in place when Saddam's regime collapsed. In an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, he added that 'when the insurgency started, we didn't act quickly enough to try to stop it'. But, he added, 'that's all history... the more important issue is what we do now'.
Speaking to The Observer, Powell was generally upbeat about the prosects for early progress in the move to hand over ownership to the Iraqis.
He also said that while military force to prevent neighbouring Iran getting nuclear arms remained 'an option', he was confident the Iranians remained some distance from getting a nuclear weapon. The emphasis now, he said, was on intense diplomacy by the international community on the Iranians.