Iraq

According to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the security situation would have to worsen significantly in the aftermath of March's parliamentary elections for the US to slow down its planned military withdrawal from Iraq. Gates stated on February 22: 'Before we would consider recommending anything like that we would have to see a pretty considerable deterioration of the situation in Iraq and we don't see that certainly at this point.' We are cautiously optimistic that there will not be a major upsurge in violence, and that Washington will achieve its goal of reducing troop levels to 50,000 by the end

To read the full article, please choose one of the following options: