Republicans want 10,000 troops to remain in Iraq

The Obama administration said it had yet to decide, and noted that in any case there was no agreement with Baghdad that any of the 46,000 American troops currently in Iraq should remain next year.

The lawmakers were discussing media reports that U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta supported a plan to keep 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq past the end of the year pullout deadline agreed in a bilateral security pact.

“I was not overjoyed when I heard 3,000. I have heard from (U.S.) commanders in the field that they think we shouldn't go below 10 (thousand),” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard McKeon, a Republican who has been warning of the perils of cutting back U.S. defense spending in general.

“I think 10,000, when you add it up, is probably the bare minimum to do this,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican and officer in the Air Force Reserves who has frequently visited U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iran is trying to destabilize Iraq's fragile democracy, Graham warned, speaking on the Senate floor along with fellow defense hawks John McCain and Joe Lieberman.

They said U.S. forces were needed to help the Iraqis with intelligence, training, counterterrorism, peacekeeping in areas disputed by Arabs and Kurds and protecting U.S. civilians that will stay in Iraq.

But Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin told reporters that he was not concerned that 3,000 U.S. troops in Iraq would be too few. In any case, Levin, a moderate Democrat, said: “I don't think it's appropriate for us to be pressing the Iraqis to be asking us for troops.”

“We ought to consider a request ... But for us to be sending a message that 'you need us,' is the wrong message, I believe,” Levin said outside the Senate.

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