WHY WE MAY NOT GET OUT OF IRAQ AS SOON AS YOU THOUGHT

Christian Science Monitor- On a map of Baghdad, the US Army's Forward Operating Base Falcon is clearly within city limits. Except that Iraqi and American military officials have decided it's not. As the June 30 deadline for US soldiers to be out of Iraqi cities approaches, there are no plans to relocate the roughly 3,000 American troops who help maintain security in south Baghdad along what were the fault lines in the sectarian war.

"We and the Iraqis decided it wasn't in the city," says a US military official. The base on the southern outskirts of Baghdad's Rasheed district is an example of the fluidity of the Status of Forces Agreement agreed to late last year, which orders all US combat forces out of Iraqi cities, towns, and villages by June 30. "We consider the security agreement a living document," says a senior US commander. . .