COMBAT TROOPS WILL STAY IN IRAQ UNDER A NEW LABEL

Gareth Porter, IPS - Despite President Barack Obama's statement at Camp LeJeune that he had "chosen a timeline that will remove our combat brigades over the next 18 months," a number of Brigade Combat Teams, which have been the basic U.S. Army combat unit in Iraq for six years, will remain in Iraq after that date under a new non-combat label.

A spokesman for Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates, Lt. Col. Patrick S. Ryder, told IPS that "several advisory and assistance brigades" would be part of a U.S. command in Iraq that will be "re-designated" as a "transition force headquarters" after August 2010.. . .

But the "advisory and assistance brigades" to remain in Iraq after that date will in fact be the same as BCTs, except for the addition of a few dozen officers who would carry out the advice and assistance missions, according to military officials involved in the planning process.