The US is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for another 10 years despite an agreement with Baghdad that is supposed to bring all American troops home by 2012, Press TV reported.
"Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction... They fundamentally will change how the Army works," US Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said on Tuesday at an invitation-only briefing for journalists and analysts.
Casey said his planning envisioned 10 combat brigades plus command and support forces committed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade as part of a sustained US commitment to fighting extremism and terrorism in the Middle East.
He said US Ground Commander Gen. Ray Odierno is conducting a study to determine how far the 139,000-strong US contingent could be cut back in Iraq and still be effective.
Under a US-Iraqi security pact, US combat forces are required to leave Iraq by 2010, while all American forces must leave by 2012.
In February, Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated Washington's commitment to the agreement, saying he intended to remove all US troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.
During his electoral campaign, US President Barack Obama pledged to end the Iraq war as quickly as possible and instead, refocus US resources on the more important fight in Afghanistan, where US forces number 52,000.
Obama has agreed to send about 21,000 combat forces and trainers to Afghanistan, which, together with additional forces approved by the Bush administration, would put the number of US troops in the country at 68,000 by the end of 2009.
Referring to the US military budget growth to $220 billion from $68 billion before the Sept. 11 incident, Casey spoke of a particular need to "build a pretty effective army with 1.1 million strength."
Years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003 respectively, Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked insurgents not only refuse to lay down arms but have also launched a fresh spate of violence and bombing attacks against security and foreign forces.
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