U.S. and coalition military forces cannot yet be withdrawn from even Iraq's most stable regions despite progress made in building up Iraqi security forces, the U.S. military's top officer said on Wednesday. Testifying alongside Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked whether coalition forces could withdraw within the next three months from any of the 14 Iraqi provinces that he had described as stable and calm. “No, sir,” Pace told the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is considering a Bush administration request for $66.3 billion in additional military funding for Iraq and Afghanistan. Rumsfeld said he expects a new Iraqi cabinet to be formed by a May 21 headline, ending a political impasse that has delayed major decisions on the future of the U.S. military presence in Iraq. The U.S. military commander in Iraq, General George Casey, said last year that he expected a substantial reduction in the U.S. force this year, but neither Rumsfeld nor Pace gave any indication that withdrawals are expected soon. “If General Casey were here, he would say that there must be reasonable security, there must be a reasonable economic opportunity, and to have either one, you've got to have a unity government,” Rumsfeld said. “We're not going to get the security, in may view, in his view, unless the new government engages the country, has a reconciliation process, and demonstrates to the Iraqi people that they have a stake in that government.”
