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Withdrawing from Iraq – some perspective

At the end of March, a group of us were fortunate to be able to interview Brig. Gen. Ralph O. Baker, United States Division – Center Deputy Commanding General East, for a Bloggers’ Roundtable. He was able to provide an update on the current and future force status for U.S. troops in Iraq.

The current goal in Iraq is to have only 50,000 troops in country by September 1, 2010. Baker told us that we presently have 11 brigade combat teams in the country and about 97,000 troops. The goal for September 1 is six, configured as the new “advise and assist“ brigades.

I asked about the personnel for these new AAB’s. The General said that they would be a typical BCT, but with and additional 40-50 field grade officers. These officers are intended to bolster support activities in the areas of planning, synchronization and coordination where the Iraqis need additional assistance. The AAB’s also bring additional intelligence and logistics experts to strengthen the support in those areas, as well.

General Baker emphasized that the main difference with the new AAB’s is their training before deployment. Emphasis is placed on combat training but added training on civil affairs and the higher level military staff activities is also included.

The transcript of this interview can be found here.

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Table of contents for Bloggers' Roundtable

  1. We Don’t Commute to Work Anymore
  2. Terror Investors Might Want to Look Elsewhere
  3. I Hear It’s Safe
  4. In Our Area the Taliban Are Paying More a Month
  5. Iraqi Police Progress
  6. Sept. 11 Conspirators Going to Trial
  7. Continued Courage and Committment
  8. The Year of Opportunity – 2008
  9. Competent, Capable, Effective Leadership
  10. Afghan Army Acts: Decisive, Overwhelming
  11. Iraqi Military Medical Services
  12. Dallas Reporting: Aid Mission to Georgia
  13. Military Integration Into NIMS
  14. Status Report From the Afghan South
  15. Status Report From the Afghan East
  16. Fourth Fleet Is About Partnerships
  17. Iraqi Police Primer
  18. Sons of Iraq Status Update
  19. Army Apologizes
  20. We Are Here!
  21. Yar! There Be Pirates!
  22. Cobra Gold 2009
  23. Our Best: Sergeant First Class Helen Gillespie
  24. Africa Partnership Station Comes to E Africa
  25. Building the Rule of Law in Afghanistan
  26. Sons of Iraq and the Iraqi Budget
  27. Air Force Combat Camera – Focus on the Fight
  28. Afghan Update for July 22, 2009
  29. The Army Goal: 1.5 Gigawatts of Renewable Energy
  30. Withdrawing from Iraq – some perspective
  31. Iraqi security update April 22 2010
  32. 2012 Federal Budget for Defense
  33. Pacific Command and the Pacific

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 5th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under War on Terror, Iraq, War on Terror, Iraq, Rebuilding, War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Comment to “Withdrawing from Iraq – some perspective”

  1. DoDLive Bloggers Roundtable: U.S. Role in Iraq | DoD Live says:
    April 5, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    [...] in the roundtable today were Chuck Simmins, North Shore Journal; Dale Kissinger, Military Avenue.com, and John Doyle, [...]