Military Force Reductions

To a crescendo of clicking cameras, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepped before a row of shimmering U.S. flags last March to make an announcement Americans had been waiting four months to hear. November's elections had swept Democrats into power on a wave of frustration with the Iraq war. Now, flanked by three committee chairmen in her ceremonial Capitol office, the San Francisco congresswoman prepared to unveil the party's plan to bring the troops home.

Despite Australia's decision to withdraw all 550 combat troops from Iraq and the ouster of a government closely allied with the Bush administration, the new defense and foreign ministers said Saturday that there was no chill in U.S. relations and pledged not to remove any of their soldiers from southern Afghanistan. After a full day of talks with their American counterparts, the Australian ministers said the U.S.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced plans Tuesday to pull 1,000 troops from Iraq by Christmas, saying Iraqi authorities were ready to take responsibility for security in Basra, the last province under British control, within two months. Brown's announcement came at a time of deepening disenchantment in Britain with the war. His nation has about 5,500 remaining troops here compared with a peak of about 46,000 after the March 2003 invasion.

Britain will cut its forces in Iraq by about half in the spring, shrinking the commitment of America's leading military partner to just 2,500 troops whose engagement will be limited mainly to training Iraqi forces, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday. The proposed withdrawal goes much further than the reduction of 1,000 troops that the prime minister announced in Baghdad last week.

Poland's new Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Saturday he wanted the last Polish troops out of Iraq by October. "The government is submitting a motion to terminate our military mission in Iraq by October 2008," Polish news channels showed Tusk telling reporters. "Although President Lech Kaczynski holds a somewhat different view, I believe we shall reach an understanding and he will not block the withdrawal of the Polish military mission."

In a change of plans, American commanders in Iraq have decided to keep their forces concentrated in Baghdad when the buildup strategy ends next year, removing troops instead from outlying areas of the country. The change represents the military's first attempt to confront its big challenge in 2008: how to cut the number of troops without sacrificing security. The shift in deployment strategy, described by senior U.S.

During a low-key ceremony Sunday, Britain formally handed over control of security responsibility for Basra province to Iraqi authorities, marking a significant step toward full Iraqi sovereignty. "This day is a big day in the history of Basra and the history of Iraq," Iraqi national security advisor Mowaffak Rubaie told a group of at least 100 dignitaries and other guests gathered in the arrival lounge at the Basra airport. "It is a huge test for the Basrawis to be in charge . . .

Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman Zawahiri, said Britain's transfer of security in southern Iraq shows that insurgents are gaining the upper hand in the country. "Reports from Iraq point to the increasing power of the mujahedin and the deteriorating condition of the Americans," Zawahiri told an off-camera interviewer from Al Sahab, the terrorist network's media arm, in a video posted on the Internet on Sunday. The video had English subtitles.

The recent explosion of violence in Iraq is forcing a debate inside the Pentagon about whether the U.S. military can proceed with plans to cut the number of troops in Iraq, Defense officials said Monday. The violence came at a crucial time for the U.S. military: Top generals must decide within weeks whether to carry out a long-anticipated reduction in American troops this summer.

Britain hopes to pull out nearly all its soldiers from Iraq by the summer of 2008, with the first withdrawals within weeks, a top military commander said in an interview today. Lt. Gen. Nick Houghton, Britain's most senior officer in Iraq, outlined a phased two-year withdrawal plan in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper. "There is a fine line between staying too long and leaving too soon," Houghton was quoted as saying.