Casey Iraq troop plan just one option: White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House confirmed on Monday
that the top U.S. military commander in Iraq has drafted a plan
for U.S. troop cuts there, but said the plan was just one
option being considered and was not set in stone.

“General (George) Casey is assigned the business of making
a lot of plans and this is one of the plans that is under
consideration,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

“But for anybody who thinks that this is engraved in stone,
it is not,” he said, adding that troop cuts would be determined
by conditions on the ground.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Casey had
drafted a plan that would first reduce U.S. troops in Iraq in
September and then cut the number of combat brigades to five or
six from the current level of 14 by the end of 2007.

There are currently nearly 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Democratic critics of the president reacted angrily, saying
over the weekend that the Casey plan appeared similar to their
calls for the administration to draw up a timetable for troop
withdrawal, yet when they urged this they were accused of
wanting to “cut and run” by Republicans.

Bush, facing waning support over the past year for the Iraq
war, has repeatedly said that troop withdrawals will take place
as Iraqi security forces become more able to assume control.

“In a time of war there is not a single plan, a
monotholithic plan. Furthermore, any of those proposals always,
as the cliche goes, never survive first contact with the
enemy,” Snow said.