raymond odierno

Tom Ricks reported earlier this week that Gen. Odierno’s relationship with the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Chris Hill, is “deteriorating rapidly.” Hill denied it to Ricks’ Foreign Policy colleague Josh Rogin. Ricks sticks to his story. So now Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) asked Odierno how it’s all going.
“Thank you so much for the question,” [...]

Nice try from Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. In asking Gen. Odierno to explain the case for keeping troops in Iraq in accordance with the U.S.-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement, he slipped in a reference to “why” the Unnited States ought to keep a residual force [...]

Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wants Gen. Raymond Odierno to address “how fast [we can] responsibly redeploy,” especially given the demands on the U.S. in Afghanistan. “What are the risks in speeding up” redeployment? The short answer: Odierno doesn’t play up the prospects for accelerating withdrawal.

Gen. Raymond Odierno is testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, the first time he’s addressed the panel, about the Iraq mission he commands. “I believe we are now in reach of our goals,” he said. Iraq is slowly reestablishing diplomatic and economic ties with its neighbors, and has begun implementing a “long-term strategic partnership” [...]

The war cabinet convenes this afternoon for the first of a series of debates over Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy. Previews that don’t preview much can be found here and here. And before that happens, word comes from Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, that if January’s Iraq elections go without incident — [...]

At the bottom of Ann Scott Tyson’s Washington Post piece about Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s assessment of the Afghanistan war is a bit of contradiction-heightening from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
In an interview with The Washington Post last week, Mullen said it might not be possible to fill requests from McChrystal for new [...]

Not being on Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s trip to the Middle East this week, I couldn’t ask him whether this is related to the expected request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal for more troops for Afghanistan, but, you know, the mind wanders:
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said conditions in Iraq have improved to the extent that [...]

Eli Lake at The Washington Times builds on yesterday’s comments from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that U.S. troops might be welcome in some form in Iraq after the 2011 deadline for their withdrawal set in the Status of Forces Agreement. He quotes Kenneth Katzman of the Congressional Research Service:
“It would also appear to indicate [...]

Usually when a journalist says “this is a thoughtful piece of writing” what s/he means is “this is a well-expressed recapitulation of things I already believe,” but, really, in the straightforward sense, this is a thoughtful piece of writing from a Marine stationed near Fallujah, brought to us by Tom Ricks. As it happens, it [...]

Milestones don’t always mark what they should. Tomorrow all these things are true: there are 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq; procedures and circumstances and contingencies pertain whereby urban security will still be a U.S. mission; there is a U.S. combat mission, by binding diplomatic accord, for an additional 13 months; another year will pass after [...]