The Pentagon is readying Iraq options for President-elect Barack Obama, including an accelerated drawdown of US forces in 16 months, as promised during his campaign, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said Obama had not asked for the plans, but the US military nevertheless would be ready to present him with a full range of options and the risks associated with each of them.
"We want to be prepared to show the incoming president a variety of options, 16-month drawdown being one of those options," he said.
"Of course, no option will be presented without relaying the risk that is taken on in conjunction with that option," he said.
The top US commander in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, has pressed to keep a large force in Iraq at least through this year because of fears that security gains there could still unravel.
But Morrell said requirements in Afghanistan, where the pace of a US military buildup hinges on a troop drawdown in Iraq, will be factored into the planning.
"Our military planners do not live in a vacuum. They are well aware that the president-elect had campaigned on withdrawing combat forces from Iraq on a 16-month timeline," he said.
"So it would only be prudent of them to draw plans that reflected that option. But that is one of the options that they are drawing up plans for," he said.
There are currently 142,000 US troops in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan, which Obama has singled out as the main front in the war on terrorism.
Plans call for deploying about 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan over the next year to 18 months to try to stem an insurgency that has gained strength and spread into neighboring Pakistan.
During his run for the presidency, Obama promised to bring all US troops out of Iraq in 16 months. But he has said would listen to the advice of the commanders, and has narrowed the drawdown pledge to "combat troops."
In asking Gates to stay on as defense secretary on December 1, Obama said he would be giving the military a new mission of "responsibly ending the war."
A US-Iraq security agreement calls for the withdrawal of all US forces by the end of 2011.
Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Obama in Chicago in mid December and relayed troop withdrawal options raised by Odierno and his number two, General Lloyd Austin.
Obama met with his national security team, including Gates and Mullen, last week.
"The secretary and the chairman's conversations with the president-elect and his team have been broad in nature so far," Morrell said.
"They will not begin to present him with specific options on the way ahead in Iraq or in Afghanistan until he is commander-in-chief, but they are prepared to give him a full range of options as soon as he is ready."
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