The White House said Thursday that the United States does not intend to maintain permanent military bases in Iraq, rejecting suggestions that American forces might remain there indefinitely.
Spokesman Tony Snow told reporters it was wrong to characterize US policy as a plan to keep troops in the country forever. He explained that decisions about the duration of any overseas military presence belong to the host government and US military planners, either of whom can close a facility.
Both the US ambassador and the president had made parallel statements in March. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told Iraqi television that Washington had no objective of establishing permanent facilities in the country. President George W. Bush said separately that future deployment decisions would fall to future US presidents and future Iraqi governments.
About 133,000 US troops were in Iraq at the time. Bush, whose poll numbers had dropped sharply because of the unpopular war, faced mounting political pressure to begin bringing at least some of those soldiers home.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in June 2006, in its own words.