Excerpt Of The Day: Iraq’s National Security Adviser On When The Troops Will Come Home

20 Jun, 2006 by John Hawkins

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“Thus far four of the 18 provinces are ready for the transfer of power — two in the north (Irbil and Sulaymaniyah) and two in the south (Maysan and Muthanna). Nine more provinces are nearly ready.

With the governors of each province meeting these strict objectives, Iraq’s ambition is to have full control of the country by the end of 2008. In practice this will mean a significant foreign troop reduction. We envisage the U.S. troop presence by year’s end to be under 100,000, with most of the remaining troops to return home by the end of 2007.” — Iraq’s National Security Adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie