US Army chief, General Ray Odierno, warned against creating the impression of an American "occupation" of Iraq by leaving too many troops in the country after a year-end deadline to withdraw.
Odierno told reporters the United States had to carefully balance how many troops were needed to assist Iraqi forces while scaling back the American profile in a country where anti-US sentiment still runs high.
"I will say when I was leaving Iraq a year ago, I always felt we had to be careful about leaving too many people in Iraq," said Odierno, who took over as Army chief of staff on Wednesday.
"The larger the force that we leave behind ...(the more) comments of 'occupation force' remain. And we get away from why we are really there -- to help them to continue to develop," he added.
By: Brant
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