Eideard

U.S. combat forces will vacate all Iraqi cities on schedule by the end of this month, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, said, including the still violent insurgent holdout of Mosul.

U.S. combat troops are scheduled to leave Iraq’s towns and cities by June 30 and redeploy to bases outside, according to a security pact that took effect in January. Some U.S. and Iraqi officials had suggested this might have to be delayed in the case of Mosul, where al Qaeda and other insurgent groups still carry out frequent attacks…

“We will come out of the cities. We will provide some trainers and advisers, LNOs (liaison officers) … inside of Mosul … but that’ll be it,” he said in an interview. “We’ve made some good progress up there in the last several months. I feel much better about where we’re at in terms of security in Mosul … We’ll be able to turn it over,” he said…

He said that since 2006, Iraqi security forces had made huge leaps in the size of their forces, and better training and equipment, but U.S. forces would remain in Iraq in an advisory role until the end of 2011, the withdrawal date agreed with Baghdad in the bilateral security pact.

“I think it’s time for us to move out of the cities, I think it’s important that people understand we are going to abide by the agreement that we’ve signed,” he said…

“You’ll never know until you leave. As long as we’re here, we can’t say they’re standing on their own two feet,” he said.

It’s amazing. We seem to have acquired a generation of officers which contains a noticeable – albeit small – number of folks with brains and the ability to use them. Somewhere along the way between Ho Chi Minh City and Kabul.

If we continue to keep our homegrown ideologues out of the way maybe we’ll get to bring everyone home?