Gates: US troops won't drop to 100,000

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Gates: US troops won't drop to 100,000
By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he sees no chance that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will drop to 100,000 by the end of the year, guaranteeing a heavy American military presence as the war grinds into its sixth year to the end of the Bush presidency.

President Bush said Gen. David Petraeus, his top commander in Iraq, can take "all the time he needs" to consider further withdrawals after the latest round of cutbacks is completed in July. In the meantime, Petraeus will continue what, until Thursday, had been secret visits to Middle Eastern countries to try to curb the influx of foreign fighters into Iraq.

With 285 days remaining in his presidency, Bush set the course of the war in a speech following two days of testimony before a skeptical Congress by Petraeus and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker.

Bush said that after the troop withdrawals, which already have been announced, end in July, he would give Petraeus 45 days to evaluate the effects of the drawdown. That would be followed by an indefinite period to reassess U.S. troop strength in Iraq, where new flare-ups of extremist violence are threatening to undercut security gains.

Bush argued that last year's troop buildup had succeeded in reducing violence, tamping down al-Qaida in Iraq and allowing normal daily activities to resume in many areas. Because of that progress, Bush said, an already planned reduction in troops can be completed in July.


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