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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Africa Europe Latin America Middle East North America Search Search: Obama's balancing act on Iraq withdrawal strategy By JENNIFER LOVEN,AP White House Correspondent AP - Sunday, March 1 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama leaned heavily toward field commanders' preferences in setting a time frame for an Iraq pullout, as he weighed the fervent desires of anti-war supporters who propelled him into office and the equally strong worries of war generals. ADVERTISEMENT "To this very day, there are some Americans who want to stay in Iraq longer, and some who want to leave faster," Obama said in his announcement Friday, summing up a debate that has divided the country like no other since former President George W. Bush launched the U.S. invasion six years ago. Obama's description suggests he arrived at a split-down-the-middle compromise with one of the first and most important tasks of his young presidency. Accounts of the process from officials in the White House, at the Pentagon and across the administration, who all requested anonymity so they could speak more candidly about behind-the-scenes discussions, show a more complicated picture. At stake was the promise that most defined Obama's presidential bid: to bring all combat troops home _ effectively, to end one of the nation's longest and most controversial wars _ 16 months after taking office. The details he offered in an appearance Friday before Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., depart from that pledge in several ways: _The combat withdrawal will take three months longer than he promised. It is now be to completed by the end of August 2010, 19 months after Obama's inauguration. Though what Obama emphasized most as a candidate was his determination to bring about a quick end to the war, in the fine print of almost all his statements was a commitment to flexibility. _The withdrawal will not happen at an even pace of one combat brigade per month, as he had repeatedly said. Instead, it will be backloaded. The force posture for this year and into the first few months of 2010 probably will be essentially the same as it would have been under Bush. Under Obama's plan, troops will start leaving in large numbers probably only next spring or summer. The president intends to leave decisions about the pace to field commanders. _Even after the drawdown, a large force of as many as 50,000 troops _ about a third of what is there now _ will remain, causing heartache among anti-war Democrats who wanted a fuller pullout. This residual force will have a new, technically non-combat mission: train Iraqis, protect U.S. assets and personnel, and conduct anti-terror operations. But those soldiers and Marines will remain in harm's way and engage at times in some form of fighting. Understanding how Obama, his aides and his generals came to this plan must start with how the candidate arrived at his campaign promise. According to one administration official, there was never any magic to the 16-month period. At the time Obama first made the pledge, there were about 16 combat brigades in Iraq, and military experts told the candidate that Iraq was too fragile for a drawdown much faster than one combat brigade per month. As early as last July, Obama signalled to the military leadership that they could influence his thinking. During a trip to Baghdad, Obama privately assured Gen. David Petraeus _ then the top U.S. commander _ that although he favored a 16-month pullout, he would do nothing rash if elected to endanger security gains in Iraq, according to a U.S. official familiar with their meeting. When he won, Obama and his team began meeting on the issue right away. But the process didn't really begin until he held the reins of the presidency. On Day One, Obama directed the Defense Department to start the planning for "a responsible military drawdown." Also that first week, he gathered top national security advisers in the Situation Room, with commanders participating in person and from the field via secure videoconference. A week later, he made his first trip to the Pentagon, to see the chairman and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all four uniformed service chiefs. More discussions with field commanders followed, as well as with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At the beginning, the White House encountered clear skepticism _ both about the need for any defined timeline and about how rigorous Obama had been in devising his 16-month proposal, said one senior Obama aide. A dozen working groups were convened and 10 interagency meetings were held, said two White House officials. Another administration official said that while it was understood the final decision resided in the West Wing, it was also encouraging to those outside the White House that they were being engaged and heard, with a lot of back-and-forth and draft-sharing. Gates and Mullen presented Obama with three withdrawal options: one for a 16-month pull-out, another with a 19-month schedule and one that stretched it over 23 months. Obama said in a Pentagon Channel interview, conducted at Lejeune after his speech, that he sought advice from "every level of Pentagon leadership" and a wide range of people outside of government "so that you're not just listening to one voice, you're listening to a whole bunch of them and then arriving at some sort of consensus." The pivotal day was last Saturday, at an all-day National Security Council meeting. Three days later, Obama met with Gates at the White House. The two met again on Wednesday with Mullen. It was then that Obama formally accepted the 19-month option. Obama officials insist that the potential political fallout played no role. One reason was that presidential advisers had calculated early on that whatever option Obama chose, even the most passionate in the anti-war camp would most remember that he ended the war _ not when. Also, Obama entered office with the decision having been made much easier for him by none other than Bush, through a last-minute agreement with Iraqis requiring all U.S. troops to leave by December 2011. So at most, Obama was talking about speeding up some parts of that by a year and a half. But that doesn't mean the president didn't face competing advice. The service chiefs see Iraq as a drain on their resources and a strain on personnel and their families. Top Marine commanders, for instance, preferred to concentrate their relatively small footprint on the new urgency in Afghanistan. Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander there, has said that he needs not only additional combat troops but also surveillance aircraft and more civilian support. Obama's national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James Jones, was already on record supporting redirecting resources to Afghanistan. Iraqi officials and some commanders, such as Gen. Ray Odierno, Petraeus' successor as the top U.S. general in Iraq, and outgoing Ambassador Ryan Crocker, pushed for the 23-month withdrawal plan. The two worried about keeping Iraq's modest momentum toward political reconciliation on track, particularly in light of the parliamentary elections set to be held in December. They didn't want to lose more than two of the 14 combat brigades now in Iraq before the end of this year. Petraeus, now Odierno's boss as head of U.S. Central Command, is said to have leaned this way, too. Odierno also wanted a backloaded withdrawal, and one without a rigid schedule in any case, because of the unpredictability of the situation around the elections. Gates said Friday that he and Mullen backed that approach. "The president found that very compelling," said one of the White House officials. In the end, that drove the strategy. Gates said it would have been too much of a crunch to leave so many forces in place for the national elections and still meet Obama's original deadline of an exit by May. Obama said in the interview that he concluded that the 2011 end date also created a need for an orderly "glidepath," since 140,000 U.S. troops couldn't just suddenly exit en masse. Also, he said he wanted to send a clear message to Iraqis that there would be no permanent U.S. occupying force. So with the December elections as a starting point, the team added a two-month buffer requested by Odierno. The rest was logistics: How long would it take starting in February to get all the rest of the combat troops out safely? They settled on six months. As Obama told the Pentagon Channel: "I think it's a responsible plan that meets our objectives, and it's one that was created in close consultation with our military commanders on the ground." ___ Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Anne Gearan, Pamela Hess, Anne Flaherty and Lolita Baldor contributed to this report. Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Recommend this article Average (0 votes) Sign in to recommend this article » Most Recommended Stories » Related Articles: World Afghan contender criticises Karzai's poll decreeReuters - 58 minutes ago US Marine dies in Iraq's Anbar provinceAP - 1 hour 6 minutes ago Obama challenges lobbyists to legislative duelAP - 1 hour 39 minutes ago Hariri tribunal to open its doors in The HagueAFP - 1 hour 52 minutes ago ASEAN leaders call for joint action on crisisReuters - 2 hours 25 minutes ago Most Popular – World Viewed Supermodel Bundchen ties knot with football star Brady Volkswagen to cut all temporary staff RBS posts record British loss, offloads toxic assets US economy shrinks stunning 6.2 percent Mexico's Pemex declares 7 bln dollar loss View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). 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