Pentagon Discusses Iraq Troop Numbers

The Pentagon has tentative plans to withdraw as many as 50,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2006, but will keep some on standby in Kuwait.

As pressure for troop withdrawal mounts both in the United States and among Iraqis, Lt. Gen. John Vines, the senior tactical commander in Iraq, told reporters his staff had looked at shrinking U.S. force levels more quickly.

Officers said in a moderately optimistic scenario, they would drop the total number of troops from more than 150,000 now to fewer than 100,000 by the end of the year, the Washington Post reported.

Another senior general said an accelerated withdrawal would be akin to taking the training wheels off of a bike too early, warning that a sudden removal of all U.S. troops would risk the collapse of Iraq’s fledgling security forces.

The plan to keep at least one brigade in Kuwait is part of what another senior officer called a hybrid option. It is intended to hedge against events in Iraq deteriorating once U.S. force levels begin to drop, the report said.