Gates hints at April Iraq assessment

WASHINGTON, March 21 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other top officials met the U.S. commander in Iraq to discuss the April progress report on troop levels in Iraq.

Gates and his advisers said they will prepare a separate progress report on Iraq as an addendum to the report Army Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker will deliver to the president in April, Voice of America said.

Most analysts expect the U.S. military will bring the number of troops stationed in Iraq to 140,000 down from 160,000 in July, but will halt any further redeployments until the security situation receives a formal assessment.

Maj. Gen. Mike Oates, the commander of the Army's 10th Mountain Division and a key strategist involved in the assessment, said the Iraqi report warrants cautious optimism.

"We're going to take force down and making some assessment about what has changed and what the impact is on that. How long that should last, I don't know," Oates said.

Oates said the U.S. military "learned through hard experience" of the failure to match the number of troops to the security situation on the ground, VOA reported.

Anthony Cordesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said the U.S. commitment in Iraq is long term, but suggested the number of U.S. troops deployed there may draw down as the mission moves from "fighting a counterinsurgency to a strategic overwatch."

Michele Flournoy of the Washington-based Center for a New American Security echoed Cordesman's sentiments. She recognized the U.S. troop numbers depended on the ability of Iraqi forces to come fully online, but stressed the Bush administration may leave any further decisions on the U.S. troop commitment to the next administration.