General tells House Committee Iraq Occupation "Open-Ended Right Now"

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Iraqis 'not ready' for US withdrawal

June 29, 2006

WASHINGTON: Iraqi security forces are still unable to operate independently of US-led foreign troops three years into the war, an American general in charge of training them said yesterday.

Asked how many Iraqi units were able to operate on their own, Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey, in charge of training Iraqi troops, told a Pentagon press conference: "It's just not appropriate yet to be thinking in terms of independent anything in Iraq. This, remember, is a nation at war."

The army's chief of staff, General Peter Schoomaker, told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that he believed the US military would be in Iraq "a long time".

"I believe it's open-ended right now," he said.


article: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19623019-2703,00.html