Iraq Troop Withdrawal | featured news

The Pentagon is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between the United States and Iraq that would bring all American troops home by 2012, the top U.S. Army officer said Tuesday.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said Sunday he believes U.S. troops will be out of the country by the end of 2011.

The ailing economy. Health care. Bank bailouts. Troop deployments. Is President Obama juggling too many balls?

The United States' top military officer said on Sunday he was "comfortable" with President Barack Obama's plan to end U.S. combat operations in Iraq in 18 months.

President Obama's planned announcement Friday to remove most U.S. combat troops from Iraq by August 2010 will free up more forces for the worsening fight in Afghanistan and help the Army end a policy that holds soldiers past enlistment periods, military officials and experts say.

U.S. military planners have drawn up three options to allow President Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq, with senior commanders favoring the slowest of the three, officials said on Saturday.

CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 18 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.

Pentagon officials say they are readying plans for a pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq, including a move to do it within the 16-month time frame promised by President-elect Barack Obama.