Experts Ponder Future of Iraq

Former Defense Secretary William Perry, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, left, and retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, center, and retired Gen. John Keane, wait to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007, before the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services joint committee hearing on Iraq. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh - AP)

WASHINGTON -- This capital's absorption with the war in Iraq is prompting former senior officials and ex-generals to look beyond the debate over whether U.S. troops should be withdrawn to ways in which the United States might bolster the battered Mideast country.

Even the most avid proponents of withdrawal contemplate keeping thousands of American troops in Iraq to train Iraqi forces and to continue to counter al-Qaida terrorists there.

They are not speaking in terms of abandoning the U.S. war on terror in the region. But many, like retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, say American troops are mired in a civil war in Iraq when the threat of Muslim extremism extends far beyond the country.

Besides, Batiste said at a joint hearing Thursday of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, a "myopic focus" on Iraq has stretched U.S. forces too thin globally.

These experts are giving Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his government mixed reviews. While some find him unduly partial to Shiites, others praise him as overseeing a decline in sectarian violence that could pay off in reconciliation among the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Sunnis who were the basis of support for al-Qaida in Iraq are beginning to reject violence and the Sunni insurgency "is rapidly fading away," retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, who has made three trips to Iraq this year, told the lawmakers.

Keane suggested keeping 60,000 U.S. troops in Iraq after cutbacks in 2008 and 2009, while former Defense Secretary William J. Perry said he would get down to 30,000 to 40,000 by the end of next year in order to "restore our ground forces to a high degree of readiness" around the world.

"I am not in favor of simply pulling out of Iraq," but of leaving behind some troops capable of fighting al-Qaida, Perry testified.

Sharp reductions are seen as repairing the bite that the deployment of more than 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq _ as well as duty in Afghanistan _ has taken out of the number of Army and Marine fighting units available in the event of unexpected emergencies.

The withdrawals are viewed, also, as a way to promote Iraqi self-sufficiency and decrease the hostility the presence of a large foreign army engenders in the Iraqi population.

"We are transitioning, with Iraqis taking the lead," said Keane, who has walked the streets of Baghdad, taking the temperature of the local populace.

Despite independent U.S. government findings that Iraq has not met most of its goals or benchmarks, there appears to be a growing conviction in Washington of real progress in Iraq.