Barack Obama sending more troops to Iraq

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama Monday rejected the idea of pausing U.S. troop drawdowns in Iraq, raised earlier in Baghdad by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

But Sen. Obama, D-Ill., locked in a tight struggle for the Democratic nomination with Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said combat troops should be brought home as soon as possible.

“I strongly disagree with the administration’s plans to ‘pause’ the long overdue removal of our combat brigades from Iraq,” Obama said in a statement.

“We cannot wage war without end in Iraq while ignoring mounting costs to our troops and their families, our security and our economy.

“While the administration puts our drawdown on permanent pause, (Osama) bin Laden is on the loose, Afghanistan is sliding toward chaos, and we’re spending billions of dollars a week in Baghdad instead of helping Americans who are struggling here at home.”

Obama instead called for a rapid and responsible removal of combat brigades, to relieve the burden on the U.S. military and pressure Iraqi governing factions to reconcile.

Gates earlier said in Baghdad that a brief period of “consolidation and evaluation” made sense after around 30,000 soldiers had been brought home in July.

He said the security situation in Baghdad remained “fragile,” a comment echoed on the streets of the capital which was rocked by two car bombings that left 19 people dead just as he was winding up his surprise trip to Iraq.

“I think that the notion of a brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense,” he told reporters after a two-hour meeting with the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

“I must say, in my own thinking, I am headed in that direction as well but one of the keys is how long is that period and what happens after that. It still has to be determined and decided by the president.”

The 157,000-strong U.S. force in the insurgency-wracked country is currently on track to come down from 19 brigades to 15 by July, a reduction of at least 20,000 troops plus another 7,000 to 10,000 members of support units, according to military commanders in Iraq.