ARAB-US RELATIONS - Nov 15 - General Warns Against Iraq Exit Timeline.

The top US commander in the Middle East General John Abizaid, warns that a phased withdrawal of US troops within six months, which some Democrats want, will increase sectarian violence in Iraq. Gen Abizaid also drew the ire of John McCain, the Arizona senator and Republican frontrunner for the 2008 presidential race, by saying he did not believe more troops would help the US stop the bloodshed in the war-torn country. "I believe more American forces prevent the Iraqis from doing more, taking more responsibility for their future", Gen Abizaid said at a contentious Senate armed services hearing. Democrats, and many Republicans, are stepping up pressure on the Bush administration to change course in Iraq in the wake of last week's congressional elections, which were largely seen as a referendum on US policy on Iraq. "I am...disappointed that basically you're advocating that status quo here today which I think the American people in the last election said that is not an acceptable condition for the American people", McCain told Gen Abizaid. Gen Abizaid was testifying before the committee for the first time since President George W. Bush announced last week that he was replacing Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, with Robert Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In August, Gen Abizaid told the same committee that Iraq could descend into civil war if the violence in Baghdad was not curtailed. But on Nov 14 he said he believed the situation in Iraq had improved since then. The four-star general said that while the level of violence in Iraq "remain dangerously high" he remains "optimistic" that the US can stabilise Iraq. Many Democrats, including Carl Levin, who will become chairman of the Senate armed services committee in January, argue that the US needs to pressure the Iraqis by announcing a timetable to start withdrawing troops within four to six months. But Gen Abizaid stressed that setting timelines for withdrawals would impede the US effort in Iraq. "We need flexibility to manage our forces...Caps and specific timetables limit that flexibility", he said.