Deploying a peacekeeping mission in Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein would involve 75,000 troops and cost $16 billion in the first year, a detailed study presented to U.S. lawmakers Thursday indicated.
The report prepared by a retired Army colonel assumes a peacekeeping mission that could last up to a decade and involve special operations units, airborne troops, infantry brigades, armored divisions and police trainers. The mission presented to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is only slightly more ambitious than what is taking shape in draft plans at the Pentagon, The USA Today reported in its Friday edition.
A U.S. force of up to 75,000 soldiers would be needed to protect Iraq from Iranian attacks, according to Col. Scott Feil, former chief of the strategy division for the Joints Chiefs of Staff. 'The planning for post-conflict reconstruction must commence now,' said Feil, co-director of the study, sponsored by the Association of the United States Army and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington. According to the newspaper, U.S. lawmakers reacted with astonishment at the scale of the peacekeeping mission envisioned.
'This is a very daunting prospect,' said Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. 'There is an enormous commitment of expense and people for a number of years.'
The report said a U.S. peacekeeping force in Iraq would have to be roughly twice the size of the force sent into Bosnia in the mid-1990s. This is because of the possibility of infighting among ethnic Kurd, Arab and Shiite factions in Iraq and the threat that outside forces, possibly from neighboring Iran, would try to exploit the post-conflict chaos, the report said.
Feil conveyed the U.S. force must protect key strategic Iraqi areas, such as the disputed Shatt Al Arab waterway and Iraqi oil fields. He added the U.S. military presence should also ensure the disarmament of the Iraqi army and the elimination of nonconventional weapons installations. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
