Iraq Dense Minister Sees Need for US Security Help Until 2018

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Source: New York Times

Iraq Defense Minister Sees Need for U.S. Security Help Until 2018
By THOM SHANKER

Published: January 15, 2008


FORT MONROE, Va. — The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.

Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.

Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.

President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up. Given Mr. Qadir’s assessment of Iraq’s military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/world/middleeast/15military.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

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