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U.S. General for strategic refit in West Asia

Richard Norton-Taylor

Number of troops "may be contributing to instability"

London: A senior U.S. officer admitted on Monday that the presence of more than 300,000 foreign troops in West Asia, most of them American, was a ``contributory factor'' to instability in the region.

The admission was made by Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt — a key strategist in the U.S. central command covering West Asia as he spelled out the American military's plan to ``reposture'' its forces over an area stretching from Egypt in the west to Pakistan in the east, and from Kazakhstan in the north to Uganda in the south.

The U.S. would ``not maintain any long-term bases in Iraq'' he said in a major speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. `

`Our position is when we leave we will not have any bases there.'' He did not speculate when that might be, though he said the U.S. could not stay in the region for as long as its forces have remained in Germany or Japan.

American troops are still deployed there 60 years after the end of the Second World War.

Nor did he say what would happen to four large air bases that the U.S. is building around Baghdad. The implication behind his remarks is that the bases would be handed over to the Iraqis.

Though he said the U.S. would not keep permanent military bases inside Iraq, Brig Gen Kimmitt made clear it would retain assets and enough forces nearby to protect its interests there.

He suggested that the U.S. had learned from past mistakes and that in future it would be ``more sensitive to [the] culture'' of the people who lived in West Asia.

He referred, as British military commanders have traditionally done, to the need to attract ``hearts and minds.''

The U.S. army was setting up a corps of officers, he added, which would ``understand the Middle East [West Asia].''

Senior British military and intelligence officers have accused the U.S. of ``heavy-handed'' tactics in Iraq and are likely to welcome any evidence that America is developing a coherent strategic approach to the region.

``Reposture'' was one of a number of crucial principles that Brig Gen Kimmitt said underlined America's new approach. The other was ``helping others help themselves'' — a reference to ``nation building'', another task which, the American military concedes, has not been one of its priorities.

However, he made plain that the new strategy in America's ``long war'' against Al-Qaeda and its affiliates would ensure that U.S. forces, when they left Iraq, would not be far away.

The U.S. would have ``sufficient forces to deter, and to protect partners and its key national interests'' in the region, Brig Gen Kimmitt said. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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