Iraqi leaders should not expect US forces to return to help in a crisis once they leave at the end of the year, a senior American military official said on Wednesday. The remarks came just days after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates ended a two-day visit to Iraq during which he urged the country's leaders to assess if they wanted any US troops to remain beyond 2011.
All American forces must leave Iraq by the end of the year undder a bilateral security pact "If we left - and this is the health warning we would give to anybody - be careful about assuming that we will come running back to put out the fire if we don't have an agreement," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"It's hard to do that," he told reporters at Al-Faw Palace in the US military's Camp Victory base on Baghdad's outskirts.
Gates, and Pentagon officials who were part of his delegation, insisted that Iraqi leaders should consider asking some US forces to stay on, primarily to train Iraqi troops on weapons systems that will be delivered later this year, and to advise what weapons Baghdad needs to buy to meet external threats.
The official, speaking on Wednesday, reiterated that message, saying that Iraqi forces needed training and weapons to combat external threats.
"When we do leave, Iraq will probably have less capability in terms of military hardware than any of its neighbours," the official said. He said the capability "will be there in the future, once they have the opportunity to buy more stuff and train on that stuff. But they won't be as strong as some people think that Iraq will be at the end of this year," he added.
Iraq's military forces were largely destroyed during the US-led invasion of 2003 and were immediately disbanded after now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled.