Demobilization

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, is being forced to grapple with one of the unexpected byproducts of the conflict in Georgia: His plan to withdraw American forces in Iraq was predicated on all partner nations keeping their troop levels intact. With nearly 2,000 Georgian troops returning home in the midst of the crisis there, the coalition has lost what one senior military official called one of the largest and most capable contributions to the Iraq effort.

Poland turned over control of an area south of Baghdad to American troops on Saturday, making it the latest in a string of countries to leave the dwindling U.S.-led coalition. As a band played their national anthem, Polish soldiers hoisted Poland's red and white flag on a parade field at their main base, Camp Echo, just outside Diwaniya. Maj. Gen.

Russian troops on Sunday began dismantling positions in the so-called security zones in Georgia that they have occupied since the war in August, Georgian and EU officials said. Moscow faces a Friday deadline for pulling back its troops under a deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the European Union. Hundreds of EU observers began monitoring Russia's compliance last week.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki warned in comments broadcast Friday that the top U.S. commander in Iraq "had risked his position" by suggesting that Iran tried to bribe Iraqi lawmakers to oppose a security agreement with the United States. Maliki's remarks were aired on state television as he convened the leaders of Iraq's political blocs to review the security agreement that would sanction U.S. troops staying in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires Dec. 31.

Iraqi political leaders met Sunday and forwarded a U.S.-Iraq security pact to the Cabinet for discussion without endorsing the agreement, which concerns the length of time American troops can remain in Iraq. Officials of the ruling Shiite political bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, said they still want some revisions in the language of the document, which now says U.S. forces must leave Iraq by the end of 2011, unless Iraq asks them to stay on.

The Iraqi government Tuesday condemned a U.S. helicopter assault inside Syria over the weekend as Damascus shut down an American school and cultural center in reaction to the raid. As the Iraqi government voiced displeasure over the American assault, the Cabinet also approved changes to a proposed U.S.-Iraq security agreement that would allow U.S. forces to stay in Iraq through the end of 2011.

Two days after Barack Obama's election as president, Iraqi officials continued to insist on a withdrawal date for U.S. troops regardless of conditions on the ground, and maintained their demand that American forces be subject to Iraqi legal jurisdiction in some instances. In an interview Thursday, government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said an effort to reach a so-called status of forces agreement that would sanction the U.S.

The Marines of the Two-Seven were not even supposed to deploy to Afghanistan. Their original destination was Iraq, and when they were sent here in April as a stopgap measure to help an overwhelmed NATO force, the plan had been to spend the time mentoring Afghan national police. It didn't turn out that way. Instead of training policemen, the lightly equipped 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division found itself engaged in firefights with insurgent units of 100 or more fighters.

A lasting image from the parliamentary debate here on the U.S.-Iraqi security plan is of a lawmaker loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr sweeping his arm across a table in a rage, hurling books, papers and a vase of flowers onto the floor of the chamber. Ahmed Massoudi's televised tantrum, and days of Sadr loyalists shouting, pounding desks and pleading for parliament to reject the pact, made no difference.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he accepted President-elect Barack Obama's approach to scheduled troop reductions in Iraq, arguing Tuesday that the hotly debated subject of timelines for withdrawal largely had been settled by a new U.S.-Iraq security agreement. "That bridge has been crossed," Gates said a day after he formally agreed to remain as Obama's Defense secretary. "And so the question is: How do we do this in a responsible way?"