U.S. Miltary Takes Long-Term Lease With Option to Buy in Iraq & Afghanistan

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US Embassy Baghdad Iraq

Remember those campaign promises to bring a swift and honorable peace in the two wars that President Obama inherited? Forget about it.

Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, said Tuesday his planning envisions combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade as part of a sustained U.S. commitment to fighting extremism and terrorism in the Middle East.

"Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction," Casey said. "They fundamentally will change how the Army works."

The U.S. currently has about 139,000 troops in Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Iraqi government in February that all U.S. troops would be out of that country by 2012. Except, of course, for the ones that Gen. Casey wants to keep there.

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