ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 11 - Pentagon To Maintain Troop Levels In Iraq.

The US army chief of staff says the Pentagon is planning for the possibility that it may have to keep current troop levels in Iraq until 2010. Gen Peter Schoomaker said he was not predicting that the situation in Iraq would require maintaining current levels of about 140,000 troops for the entire period. But he said the army needed to plan for that possibility. "This is not a prediction that things are going poorly or better", Gen Schoomaker was cited as saying by Reuters. "It's just that I have to have enough ammo in the magazine that I can continue to shoot as long as they want us to shoot". His comments come less than a month before the crucial midterm Congressional elections. The Republicans are in jeopardy of losing control of one, or both, houses of Congress, partly because of falling support for the war. The US military and Iraqi force continue to struggle to stop the violence in Iraq and as its military death toll in the increasingly unpopular war continues to climb. Since the 2003 invasion, 2,749 troops have been killed in Iraq, and another 337 have died in Afghanistan, where violence has also escalated in recent months. The US has also suffered more than 20,000 non-fatal casualities, with more than 9,000 so serious that the soldier could not return to duty. Pres Bush acknowledged that attacks on US soldiers have increased recently, but argued that despite the violence Iraq will still making progress. His comments come less than a month before the November congressional elections, in which the Republicans are in danger of losing control of one, or both, houses of Congress. Bush did suggested that there would be some flexibility in US policy on Iraq, partly in response to recent comments by James Baker, the former secretary of state who is leading a bipartisan workgroup on Iraq, that there were other options between remaining for the long haul and cutting and running. The Bush administration had hoped to reduce US troop numbers to about 100,000 by the end of 2006, partly in an attempt to convince the US public that the military was making progress in Iraq. But those plans have had to be shelved because of the growing level of sectarian violence in Iraq and particularly Baghdad. The Pentagon recently extended the tour of some soldiers in Iraq to deal with the increasing violence. Head of US Central Command Gen John Abizaid, recently said he expected current US troop levels would be maintained until at least spring of next year. Gen Abizaid in July told Congress that Iraq could descend into full-scale civil war, and warned that curbing the violence in Baghdad was the key to avoiding such an outcome. Speaking at the Pentagon, the top US commander in Iraq Gen George Casey, said the situation in Iraq remained "difficult and complex" but said he did not agree with analysts who say Iraq is already mired in civil war. He added that Shi'ite extremists, death squads and militias comprised the "greatest current threats" in Iraq.