Rumsfeld: Troop Reductions Not Likely Until Iraqis Stronger
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There likely won&#39;t be a reduction in US troop strength in Iraq until after the country&#39;s national elections in January, Defense Secretary Donald
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The top U.S. general and diplomat in Iraq are expected on Monday to argue against any major decrease in U.S. troop levels for now because this could undercut any progress made under the "surge" of forces into Iraq this year, a U.S. official said on Sunday.
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Army Gen. John P. Abizaid raised the possibility that forces in Iraq could start to be reshaped as early as next year to reduce the number of combat troops and concentrate on the development of Iraqi security forces.
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Defense officials are not ruling out the possibility that they will need more U.S. troops to secure January's elections in increasingly violent Iraq, but believe Iraqi and perhaps international troops may be able to do the job instead, a top general said Wednesday.
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Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed hope Monday, but did not explicitly predict, that American troops would be out of Iraq by the end of President Bush's second term.
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Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday the United States could begin to withdraw some troops from Iraq beginning early next year, if newly trained Iraqi security forces can shoulder more of the burden.
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday raised the possibility that some areas of Iraq night be excluded from elections scheduled for January if security could not be guaranteed.
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Conditions in Iraq will not  improve sufficiently by September to justify  a drawdown of U.S. military forces, the top  commander in Iraq said yesterday.
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WASHINGTON -- The United States may be able to reduce its combat forces in Iraq by next spring if Iraq's own security forces continue to grow and improve, a senior American commander said yesterday.
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In a move that could portend a strategy change, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq said Sunday he has proposed reducing his troop levels and shifting next year to missions focused less on direct combat.
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld  said on Tuesday he was misunderstood when he stated hours  earlier that he knew of no "strong, hard evidence" linking  Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda.
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The United States may be able to reduce its troop levels in Iraq after the January elections if security improves and Iraqi government
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NEW YORK - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday he does not expect civil war in Iraq and pointed to the recent retaking of the former insurgent stronghold of Samarra as evidence of progress in stabilizing the country before elections in January.   "I don't think it's going to happen," Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations when asked about the threat of civil war...
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Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed hope Monday, but did not explicitly predict, that American troops would be out of Iraq by the end of President Bush&#39;s second term.
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on  Thursday raised the possibility that Iraq could conduct only  limited elections in January, excluding places where violence  was considered too severe for people to go to polls.
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The United States will probably have more troops in Iraq this summer than it did before pouring in forces last year -- even after a planned drawdown, a U.S. general said on Friday.
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates met his top military commanders in Iraq on Monday to discuss the pace of U.S. troop reductions, a day after militants killed more than 50 people in a spate of attacks.