US General: We Might Stay in Iraqi Cities For A While

President Obama has been a bit preoccupied with Afghanistan and Pakistan this past week, but he might want to take note of the words of Lieutenant General Lloyd Austin (pictured), the senior commander of US ground forces in Iraq, about the American intervention.

It ain't over.

Austin told The Christian Science Monitor that US troops are likely to remain in Baquba and Mosul after the deadline for redeployment to major bases outside the cities. Senior military commanders added that US troops will probably remain in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.

Austin said, "In Mosul and Diyala [Province, north of Baghdad], as we do a combined or joint assessment of the situation on the ground, I have every expectation that both sides will say we need to stay with this a little bit longer until this improves."

Austin played now-standard double military-speak with the Monitor. On the one hand, there had been a dramatic drop in violence in Iraq since 2006. On the other, because it had to be "sustainable and lasting", American troops might still be needed past the deadlines agreed with Iraq last December and reiterated by President Obama last month:

At the end of the day, what I'm trying to create is sustainable security, and sustainable security to me doesn't look like just a couple of good indicators – attacks being down, numbers of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] being down. That's part of it. What it really is is the Iraqis having the capability to do this on their own when we leave so we are focused on creating that capability with them.

Why cast scepticism on Austin's assessment, questioning whether he is offering an objective reading of both military and political situations? Possibly because of his reading of the history of America's grand victory in Iraq:

I think it was one of the most incredible things our military has ever done. With literally two divisions – an Army division and a Marine division – we fought our way forward and liberated a city of 6 million people. If you lay that out and asked someone to talk about whether that's possible, most folks would tell you that's not possible.