Odierno Disputes Memo Urging Early Pullout

The top U.S. general in Iraq said he disagrees with a colonel's memo that urges an early troop withdrawal, although the security situation is better than expected.

Gen. Ray Odierno tells The Associated Press the Americans need to stay the course in Iraq.

He said Tuesday that the goal is "a secure, stable, sovereign, self-reliant Iraq. We're not there yet."

Col. Timothy R. Reese, a U.S. Army adviser to the Iraqi military in Baghdad, wrote in a memo (first revealed by The New York Times last week) that the effort to train Iraqi forces has reached a point of rapidly diminishing returns and that the U.S. should go home next year, 16 months ahead of schedule.

Asked about the memo, a military spokesman told the Times that the memo "reflects one person's personal view at the time we were first implementing the Security Agreement post-30 June. It does not reflect the official views of U.S. Forces in Iraq."

The current timetable, as outlined by President Obama, is to reduce the U.S. military presence in Iraq from about 130,000 troops to 50,000 troops or fewer next August. The remaining troops would perform non-combat operations, though these could include counterterrorism missions.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last Wednesday, however, that he sees "some chance of a modest acceleration" in the pace of U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq., telling reporters on his return from Iraq that Gen. Odierno told him that the security situation there is going better than expected.

Meanwhile, inaction in the Iraqi Parliament delayed an agreement to extend Britain's security and training role in the country beyond the end of July, prompting the U.K. to withdraw its remaining troops to Kuwait.