A significant number of U.S. combat troops could be withdrawn from Iraq by early 2008 as long as the Iraqis meet specific goals toward reconciliation and establishing a unified government, a top U.S. commander in Iraq said Friday. “I think it's possible, if in fact we have interim steps that are agreed upon, with timelines that basically move us toward reconciliation,” Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli said of a possible early-2008 withdrawal. One key move, the commander of the multinational forces in Iraq said, would be to set a date for provincial elections, as well as critical economic improvements that would get the “angry young men” off the streets and out of the insurgency. Setting a date for provincial elections could have a significant impact in Sunni Arab areas, Chiarelli told reporters in Washington via video link from Baghdad. “I definitely think, there's an opportunity to turn things around. There's no doubt in my mind there is,” Chiarelli said. “I definitely think that this is winnable.” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has emissaries trying to work out agreement on a timetable for meeting a series of political goals, Chiarelli said, adding that General George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad also were pressing for a timeline leading to reconciliation. It will take “more than military action to solve the problems that face Iraq and to pull people together,” Chiarelli said. “It's going to take working along … the economic and the political lines of operation, the reconstruction line of operation, to give Iraqis hope for their future.
