At the end of the month, US troops are required by the Status of Forces Agreement to leave Iraq’s cities. They’ll remain on the streets, but as part of joint patrols with the Iraqi military. US troops are expressing concerns about that however.
“I don’t think they’ll be able to sustain the patrol schedule,” one soldier noted. US strategy in Iraq’s cities includes massive numbers of patrols, while Iraqi forces prefer to man checkpoints in key parts of the city.
For now, they seem willing to humor the US troops as they coax them into going on joint patrols, but in July the US won’t be doing any patrolling without Iraqis, and it is unclear if they’ll put up with having that many patrols.
The US insists it is committed to the June 30 pullout date, though some local commanders have expressed concerns that they don’t have the details of what exactly the pullout will mean to them.
