The Daily Background

Supporters of the Iraq war have been pointing to the recent comments of general John Abizaid, the chief CENTCOM commander in charge of US operations in the middle east. The Guardian writes on Abizaid’s comments:

[Abizaid] warned against setting a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, saying it would impede commanders in managing US and Iraqi forces. Gen Abizaid spoke as the Senate armed services committee began re-examining US policy after last week’s Democratic election victory.

There’s one inconvenient part of this, however. Most pro-Iraq-war types are interested in boosting US troop levels. William Kristol, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, perhaps most prominently have argued for higher troop levels. Abiziad however doesn’t think that more troops are the answer. On the contrary, he thinks that Democrats are right in insisting that Iraqi security forces need to have more motivation to get their act together:

But Gen Abizaid argued against extra troops, saying US divisional commanders believed more pressure needed to be put on the Iraqi army to do its part.

So if you hear people say that the “generals on the ground” are asking for more troops (as is so frequently claimed by politicians), just mention Abizaid’s name.

Filed under: Iraq Related, Z-TDB Blog