30,000 = 0 says US

IssueMarch 2009
News by Gabriel Carlyle

The US’s top commander in Iraq, general Raymond Odierno, has appeared to claim that all US forces will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011 (as required by the agreement signed by the US and Iraqi governments at the end of last year): “By 2011 we’ll be zero.” (New York Times)
However, when the Washington Post asked Odierno what sort of US military presence he expected in Iraq in 2014, he foresaw a force of “probably around 30,000 or so, 35,000”, with many troops training Iraqi forces and others conducting combat operations against al-Qa’eda in Iraq and its allies.

Topics: Iraq