Pace to urge cutting force by half

WASHINGTON – The outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to advise President Bush to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq next year by almost half, potentially creating a rift with top White House officials and other military commanders on the course of the war.

Administration and military officials say Marine Gen. Peter Pace is likely to convey concerns that keeping a force well in excess of 100,000 troops in Iraq through 2008 would severely strain the military. This assessment could collide with one being prepared by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus, calling for the U.S. to maintain higher troop levels for the next year and beyond.

Petraeus is expected to support a White House view that the absence of widespread political progress in Iraq requires several more months of the U.S. troop “surge,” with force levels declining to pre-buildup levels sometime next year.

Pace’s recommendations reflect the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to administration and military officials, the Joint Chiefs believe it is of strategic importance to reduce the size of the U.S. force in Iraq to bolster the military’s ability to respond to other threats.

Pace is expected to offer his advice privately instead of issuing a formal report. Still, the position of Pace and the Joint Chiefs could add weight to that of Bush administration critics, including Democratic presidential candidates, that the U.S. force should be reduced.

According to a senior administration official, the Joint Chiefs in recent weeks have pressed concerns that the Iraq war has degraded the U.S. military’s ability to respond, if needed, to other threats, such as Iran.

The chiefs are pushing for a significant decrease in troop numbers once the current buildup comes to an end – perhaps to as low as 10 combat brigades, half the number currently in Iraq. Along with support units, that would lower the U.S. presence to less than 100,000 troops from the current 162,000.

But military leaders in Iraq, as well as senior officials in the White House, are pushing for troop levels to return to the prior level of about 15 brigades, or approximately 134,000 troops, after the current increase is over.

Bush has said publicly he hoped to move toward troop levels recommended by the blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group, which had called for drastic reductions in combat power to focus on training and counterterrorism missions. Such a shift would lead to a force numbering anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 soldiers. That now appears unlikely.

Pace was not nominated by Bush for a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs and will leave at the end of September. He is being succeeded by Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the current Navy chief, who has been even more vocal in his concerns about the stresses on the Army.