Diplomat sees U.S. combat troops in Iraq into '09

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

February 2, 2008

WASHINGTON - The top U.S. diplomat in Iraq said Friday the United States plans to keep combat troops there into 2009, seen as the tipping point for establishing the nation's long-term security, and he offered no deadline for a full withdrawal.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker told The Associated Press he can't make any promises if, as Democratic candidates have signaled, the next president pulls forces out faster or in greater numbers.

Crocker said that America remains "a center of gravity" in Iraq almost five years after the invasion and that violence and political development both hinge to a considerable degree on whether U.S. forces remain. He said he and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, would make the best of any change in plans ordered from the top. "Obviously, we're not the ones who make the policy decisions - not in this administration and not in the next one," Crocker said.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have said they would begin withdrawing forces quickly if elected. Both would phase out withdrawals and leave a small number of forces behind for specific missions. Republican front-runners Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney say they would essentially continue President George W. Bush's strategy of bringing troops home as conditions warrant.

The Iraq chiefs are working off a blueprint calling for "conditions-based withdrawal," Crocker said. That could bring combat troops home by sometime next year if security conditions permit, but leave other forces for long-haul missions such as training. Crocker said he and Petraeus stand by an earlier assessment that Iraq would be more or less secure and stable by summer 2009 and that U.S. combat troops would be needed at least into 2009 to battle al-Qaida and a still-vibrant insurgency.

Crocker and Petraeus will make their next report to Congress in April. Crocker will be top U.S. negotiator in talks on the American presence with the Iraqis, expected to begin this month. He would not speculate on whether Bush's planned force drawdown would continue after summer.