Wednesday, October 11, 2006

U.S. Army making plans to keep current Iraq troop level through 2010

Army: Troops to Stay in Iraq Until 2010


The U.S. Army has plans that would keep the current level of troops in Iraq - about 15 brigades - through 2010, the top Army officer said Wednesday.

The Army chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, cautioned that people not read too much into the planning, because it is easier to pull back forces than to get units prepared and deployed at the last minute.

"This is not a prediction that things are going poorly or better," Schoomaker told reporters. "It's just that I have to have enough ammo in the magazine that I can continue to shoot as long as they want us to shoot."

His comments come less than four weeks before congressional elections, in which the unpopular war in Iraq and the Bush administration's policies there are a major campaign issue.

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