Word: iraq
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...Kelly said on Tuesday that "the war could be over" - not because the U.S. had lost, but because it had won. "All of Iraq is doing pretty well," Kelly added, characterizing the limited violence now occurring there as practically "meaningless...
...Qaeda element that it rose up against the insurgency. Tribal sheiks who had once fought against U.S. forces began to work with the Marines in a tacit "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" alliance. "If the objective is zero violence in the nation of Iraq, it's impossible," Kelly said. "But if the objective is [to reduce] violence [to a level] manageable by the Iraqi police and the Iraqi army, we're all but there throughout most of the country...
...Kelly's view echoes the consensus within the U.S. military as the Pentagon ponders how to implement Obama's order to withdraw most combat troops - about half of the 142,000 U.S. soldiers now in Iraq - by August 2010. In the tug-of-war between on-ground commanders who would like to go slower and their superiors in Washington who need more troops for Afghanistan, the President's timetable splits the difference. In fact, the Pentagon provided Obama with three options: the 16-month timetable he embraced during the campaign; the 19-month option he is expected to announce this...
...never been called as a quick-reaction force since we started doing this," Kelly said. But Kelly's Baghdad commanders were leery. "I had conversations with my bosses in Baghdad more than once [in which they maintained] there was a danger to reducing forces too quickly in Iraq," Kelly recalled. "But I'd make the point frequently that there's also a danger if you keep too many U.S. forces in Iraq because they...
...Kelly said those bosses included the highly rated trio of Army Generals David Petraeus, Ray Odierno and Lloyd Austin. In typical Army fashion, they were conservative in their assessment of the battlefield, and always wanted more troops to keep potential trouble at bay. Kelly, a Marine on his third Iraq tour, said he sensed what was possible in Anbar while his Army bosses in Baghdad didn't. "Maybe because of my experience - and certainly because the Marines were doing so well - I had a sense that things were doable," Kelly said, "perhaps before other people had a sense that they...