Baghdad — Iraq has only weeks to decide if it wants to keep US troops beyond an end-2011 deadline for their withdrawal, the top US military officer said on Friday in Baghdad following talks with Iraq's prime minister.
The comments by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, are the strongest so far by US officials warning Baghdad that Washington will soon have to initiate the withdrawal of its 47,000 forces under the terms of a bilateral security pact.
Asked what Iraq's deadline was for deciding, Mullen said: "I think the timeline is in the next few weeks."
"Because there, for the withdrawal, there is what I call a physics problem with 47,000 troops here, lots of equipment and physically it just takes time to move them."
More than eight years after the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraq is struggling to halt violence from a weakened but still lethal Islamist insurgency and put an end to a long period of political instability following general elections more than a year ago.
Amid media speculation about backroom talks to clinch an agreement, Mullen stressed there have been no official discussions with respect to any extended presence of US forces beyond December.
Any decision by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to extend the presence of US troops is risky. Anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Sadrist bloc is part of Maliki's government, will unleash his Mehdi Army militia if US troops fail to leave Iraq by year-end, his aides said earlier this month.
Mullen criticized those comments as "irresponsible."
"The extension of that statement is to essentially threaten violence in the future and Iraq has seen more than its fair share of violence and death," Mullen said.
FUTURE RELATIONS
Sadr's political movement won strong support in elections last year and overcame animosity toward Maliki to join his coalition government.
"So I think a statement like that bears or is irresponsible in terms of taking care of Iraqi citizens in the future," Mullen said.
Sadr's Mahdi Army fought US troops after the 2003 invasion and during the height of Iraq's sectarian violence in 2006-7. Maliki sent government troops to crush the militia in 2008.
Mullen also acknowledged Iraq's political leaders had to take "everything into consideration" when reviewing the future of the US-Iraq relationship. But he also noted Iraqi "vulnerabilities," including in air defense and intelligence.
Maliki said in a statement released on his website late on Thursday after his talks with Mullen the government was keen to develop relations with the United States, particularly with regards to training and arming its security forces.
"Our security forces are now able to hold the responsibility, preserve the security and to act professionally and patriotically," Maliki said.
"We will enhance its combat ability through supplying it with modern arms and equipment."
