Iraq withdrawals "off the table": Republicans

By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading Republicans in Congress on Thursday declared that troop withdrawal legislation should be scrapped because the United States has made significant progress in the Iraq war, just as Democrats were resuming efforts to bring soldiers home.

"It should be off the table," House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said of Democratic attempts to pass legislation to force President George W. Bush to withdraw some of the 168,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and wind down the combat mission there.

The Republican hardened stance followed months of speculation that September could usher in cooperation with Democrats on trying to craft a new Iraq policy. In recent months a small but growing number of Republicans have said it is time to develop a bipartisan strategy to bring troops home.

Democrats pointed to a new report that said the Iraqi army was improving to bolster arguments for starting to withdraw U.S. forces.

Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, who headed the commission that studied Iraqi security forces, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the United States might be able to "adjust" the number of its forces in Iraq as early as next year, as the Iraqi army continues to improve.

The Iraqi army would be unable to take charge of the country's security for 12 to 18 months, and the national police should be scrapped and a new force set up to replace it, said the report by the Jones commission.

Meanwhile the United States should reconsider its "footprint" in Iraq, and "significant reductions" in U.S. forces were possible, the report said.

Many military analysts think the United States will have no choice but to remove some troops next year to give combat soldiers a rest. Jones suggested U.S. forces that remain take on more missions enforcing border security with Syria and Iran.