Iraqis Want Immediate U.S. Troop Withdrawal: U.S. Army Chief
Iraqis want immediate U.S. troop withdrawal: U.S. army chief
http://english.people.com.cn/200512/...27_230953.html
12/27/2005
A top U.S. general on Sunday conceded that most Iraqis want an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from their country, but he said no specific deadline or target has been set for the pullout yet.
Now more and more Iraqis want the U.S. and other foreign troops to leave their country "as soon as possible", which is quite understandable, Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fox News in an interview on Sunday.
He said the U.S. troop levels in Iraq will decline next year, but there is no specific target for the number of withdrawals yet.
Instead, more troops could be needed to cope with the persistent insurgency in the country, said the general.
"We do not have a plan that specifically says we will be down below 100,000 by the end of 2006. What we have is a plan that allows us to keep what we have today for the foreseeable future and then off-ramps and on-ramps based on conditions on the ground, " said Pace.
Currently, there are about 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced a decision to tentatively cut troop levels by 5,000 early next year.
An opinion poll conducted among Iraqis in October and November by ABC News and other foreign media has found the U.S. military presence increasingly unpopular in Iraq.
Two-thirds of those polled said they opposed the presence of U.S. forces, up 14 percent from a similar survey taken in February 2004.
