In a blunt memo to top military officials, a senior US official has called for withdrawing American troops from Iraq, detailing a growing tension between US and Iraqis forces, reported The New York Times on Friday, July 31.
“(It is time) for the US to declare victory and go home,” Colonel Timothy R. Reese, an adviser to the Iraqi military’s Baghdad command, wrote in a detailed memo submitted recently to senior US commander in Iraq General Ray Odierno.
Colonel Reese said the US troops have became a persona non grata in Iraq.
“As the old saying goes, ‘Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days,’ ” he wrote.
“Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose.”
The senior US commander cited a growing tension between US troops and Iraqi forces since the US troop redeployment last month.
These included a “sudden coolness” to American advisers and the “forcible takeover” of a checkpoint in the Green Zone, Reese wrote.
Iraqi units, he added, are much less willing to conduct joint operations with their American counterparts “to go after targets the US considers high value.”
Moreover, the Iraqi Ground Forces Command has imposed “unilateral restrictions” on US military operations that “violate the most basic aspects” of the security agreement that governs American and Iraqi military relations, Reese wrote.
“The Iraqi legal system in the Rusafa side of Baghdad has demonstrated a recent willingness to release individuals originally detained by the US for attacks on the US,” he added.
In July 2 orders, the Baghdad Operations Command ordered the US troops to stop all joint patrols and unwarranted raids.
Under the new rules, the US troops were only allowed to run resupply patrols only at night times.
US commanders complain that the restrictions put their troops at risk.
Resentment
In his memo, Reese said the Iraqi troops are plagued with deficiencies, citing corruption, poor management and inability to resist Shiite political pressure.
He, however, said despite the deficiencies, the Iraqi forces are now able to protect the government.
“We now have an Iraqi government that has gained its balance and thinks it knows how to ride the bike in the race,” he wrote.
“And in fact they probably do know how to ride, at least well enough for the road they are on against their current competitors.”
The US military official said extending the US military presence beyond August 2010 benchmark will not make great changes to the Iraqi military performance.
“If there ever was a window where the seeds of a professional military culture could have been implanted, it is now long past,” he wrote.
“US combat forces will not be here long enough or with sufficient influence to change it.
“The military culture of the Baathist-Soviet model under Saddam Hussein remains entrenched and will not change,” he added.
“The senior leadership of the I.S.F. is incapable of change in the current environment.”
Colonel Reese also warned that the US presence could fuel the growing resentment of the Americans.
“Our hand on the back of the seat is holding them back and causing resentment,” he wrote.
“We need to let go before we both tumble to the ground.”
-Agencies