As the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Charles Jacoby Jr. will play a key role in making the assessments on which the American military will base its final recommendation on whether to withdraw all combat forces from Iraq by next August, the goal set by President Barack Obama. After that, 50,000 U.S. troops would remain to help with training and logistics until the end of 2011.
The timetable calls for Gen. Ray Odierno, the overall commander, to make a recommendation 60 days after crucial Iraqi elections — due to take place Jan. 16 — on whether it is safe to pull out the troops.
Amid growing concerns that the election may be delayed by disputes among Iraqi politicians, and in the wake of the devastating Oct. 25 bombings that killed 155 people in downtown Baghdad, Jacoby sat down with Tribune Newspapers this week to talk about the factors that will influence the decision.
Q. Are you concerned that the elections on which your withdrawal timetable is based may be delayed?
A. We are watching this very closely. This parliamentary election is a decisive point in the history of Iraq’s democracy, and it’s also very important to the United States. We have a stake in their success. … There’s lots of opportunity here and we don’t want to miss these opportunities by having this election drift.
Q. Would an election delay also delay the plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces by August 2010?
A. We do not think we are at the point where we are off our plan, but of course we are going to watch this very carefully. Any decision to vary from the plan is a policy decision that won’t take place here.
Q. What is the minimum time you need after the election to get all the combat troops out by August?
A. We have it well within our capability to compress or expand. I would just say, obviously, the longer we move to the right (in terms of the timeline), the harder it gets, from a logistics standpoint. But we’re not at that point where we have to make decisions.
Q. So there is some wiggle room within the timetable?
A. The security agreement (between Iraq and the U.S.) stipulates end of 2011 that we withdraw all our forces. It is our strategy that we’ll be down to 50,000 by August 2010, not connected to the security agreement. We have decision points along the way where we can adjust.
Q. Do you anticipate an increase in violence around the election?
A. I think we should expect the adversaries of Iraq to use this period of time as we approach the election, and even during the time period we seat the government. They can get maximum exposure and opportunity to create a negative effect, so I think we should expect them to test the Iraqi security forces.
———–
esly@tribune.com
