WASHINGTON - Top US generals believe that Washington's troop commitment in Iraq could last many years since US goals depend on training an effective police force and bolstering flagging public confidence in the new Iraqi government, The New York Times said Thursday.
US military commanders in Baghdad and Washington provided a less enthusiastic outlook for Iraq than a week ago when some indicated that positive trends in Iraq could lead to a major drawdown of the 138,000 US troops there by the end of this year or beginning of 2006, the daily said.
One officer suggested that US military involvement in Iraq could last "many years."
General John Abizaid, the top US commander in Iraq, told reporters at a briefing here that one of the problems was the disappointing progress in training an Iraqi police force cohesive enough to mount an effective challenge to insurgents and start taking over from US troops.
An unidentified officer in Baghdad noted that there have been 21 car bombings so far this year in Iraq, compared to 25 for all of last year, and that despite recent success in disrupting insurgent cells, US goals in Iraq were not assured.
"I think that this could still fail," the officer said at the briefing, referring to the American enterprise in Iraq. "It's much more likely to succeed, but it could still fail."
He said much depended on the Iraqi government's success in bolstering public confidence, which according to a recent survey by Baghdad University has dropped to 45 percent from an 85 percent right after the elections in January.
To raise the public level of confidence, the officer said, the Iraqi government would have to cut insurgent attacks and improve public services like electricity that for many Iraqis, he said, are worse than last year.
"I think it's going to succeed in the long run, even if it takes years, many years," the senior officer said.
He added that the US military "believe in the mission that we've got" in Iraq, but that "if we let go of the insurgency and take our foot off its throat, then this country could fail and go back into civil war and chaos."
The officer also told the daily that Iraq's ban on raids on mosques announced Monday by Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi was apparently issued without wider government approval and would likely be revised and replaced by a "more moderate" policy.
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