All Blog Posts from World Watch

Nearly one out of six American service members in Iraq, about 20,000 in all, are involved in a massive logistical operation with one overriding goal: Getting our stuff and leaving.

Johan Spanner writes in The New York Times today about the challenges facing the military as it sets about dismantling about 300 bases and removing 1.5 million pieces of American equipment — everything from weapons and vehicles to coffeemakers — from Iraq.

Six years after the U.S.-led invasion, the "largest movement of soldiers and matériel in more than four decades" (according to Spanner) is further complicated by continued attacks for Iraqi insurgents; consideration of what will be left behind for Iraqis; and U.S. military needs in Afghanistan.

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The senior U.S. combat commander in Iraq told CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick on the eve of the U.S. urban withdrawal that the country's police and military face a tough fight from a still-viable insurgency, but they're up to the challenge.

Lt. General Charles Jacoby, who spoke to McCormick by phone from Baghdad, said the recent surge in attacks across Iraq, and particularly in the capital, was foreseeable.

"I think that the testing of the Iraqi security forces will go on for some time," he predicted, warning that there are still combatants scattered across the country.

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