IRAQ: Troop withdrawal comment raises Iraqi ire
Ali Dabbagh may be Iraq's official government spokesman -- until he says something the Iraqi government doesn't want him to say. That appears to have been the case in Washington, 
when at a Pentagon news briefing Dec. 11, Dabbagh commented that "it might be 10 years" before Iraqi security forces are ready to go it alone without U.S. help.
This contradicts the Status of Forces Agreement passed by Iraq's parliament Nov. 27, which calls for all U.S. troops to leave Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011. Iraq's government, cognizant of the ire Dabbagh's comments could raise among opponents of SOFA, who say it will be manipulated by the United States and Iraq to extend the Americans' stay, hastily distanced itself from Dabbagh's remarks.
In a brief statement Saturday, the office of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said Dabbagh's statement "is his personal opinion and does not represent the vision of the Iraqi government."
The debate leading up to SOFA's passage was marked by yelling, desk pounding, and a near-brawl as opponents of the pact tried to prevent it from coming to a vote. Those opponents, led by the fiery Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, warned that the pact could be interpreted in a variety of ways and twisted to suit U.S. and Iraqi government desires.
Dabbagh's remarks would seem to bolster their claims. So too, perhaps, the remarks Saturday of the chief U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. Ray Odierno. Speaking at a U.S. base north of Baghdad where U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates paid a visit, Odierno said the June 30, 2009, deadline for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq's cities left room for plenty of American forces to stay in population centers.
Odierno said those troops could be viewed as "transition teams" needed to help Iraqi forces with logistical and other support. Thousands of them live alongside Iraqi security forces in neighborhoods across Baghdad and other population centers in small bases. "We believe we should still be inside those after the summer," Odierno told reporters. They are far different from the large bases on the edge of cities to which combat troops are supposed to move by the middle of next year. SOFA, however, does not define "combat" troop, leaving it up to U.S. and Iraqi officials to decide which forces leave and which forces stay.
-- Tina Susman in Baghdad
Photo: Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh. Photo: Iraqi government
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