American forces are not expected to stay in Iraq for the reminder of the term of President George W Bush, who will be leaving office on January 20, 2009.
The draw down of US troops will begin before that period but would depend on the ground situation, a top American military commander in Iraq said.
"It's conditions-based over here. No question we'll draw down our force levels before that time period, but I'm sure there will be some kind of residual military training teams working with the Iraqi security forces for some period of time still," remarked Maj Gen William Caldwell, the spokesman of the Multinational Forces in Iraq.
Gen Caldwell was responding to a remark made by Bush on Monday that leaving Iraq at this point of time would be a disaster and something that will not take place during his presidency.
"We're not leaving so long as I'm the president. That would be a huge mistake. It would send an unbelievably, you know, terrible signal to reformers across the region. It would say we've abandoned our desire to change the conditions that create terror," Bush said at the White House during a news conference.
Gen Caldwell did not directly respond to a query if the American military structure would have to be augmented in the context of escalating violence in Iraq but maintained that sectarian violence was confined to a few provinces and not throughout the country.
"When you take a look at those casualty figures, you find that they're occurring in four of our provinces out of our 18. And the other 14 provinces are relatively calm and almost experience no incidents.
"We've taken a three-pronged approach and we've moved some forces into Baghdad City. We're taking a very deliberate effort there, where we're bringing down the sectarian violence," the top military commander said.
In the last two weeks of this new operation 'which we call phase two of Operation Together Forward, we're seeing some very promising indications that this portion of the
operation has been very successful... If the incidents are occurring in the city of Baghdad, that's where the insurgent elements know that they can make a spectacular show, that they can gain media attention, that they can try to show that the Maliki government, the prime minister's government, is not working," Gen Caldwell said.
He also argued that it is not the policy of US troops to go after individuals and a decision to this effect must be taken by the prime minister of Iraq.
The American Commander was responding to a remark made in some quarters that perhaps Muqtada al Sadr must be eliminated in the same fashion Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was targeted as al Sadr is not only seen as organising sectarian violence and killings but also having blood on his hands by killing American soldiers.
"Our policy is to only go after those elements that are operating outside of the law. To go after one individual like that, that's a decision the prime minister would have to make in this country, not us.
"We right now are conducting operations deliberately each and every day to target those people who are operating outside of the law and not conforming to the norms that this prime minister has established for his country," Gen Caldwell said.
