More US troops in Iraq likely

Pentagon officials conducting a review of Iraq strategy are considering a substantial but temporary increase in American troop levels...

Pentagon officials conducting a review of Iraq strategy are considering a substantial but temporary increase in American troop levels and the addition of several thousand more trainers to work with Iraqi forces, a senior Defense Department official said on Monday.

The idea, dubbed the 8220;surge option8221; by some officials, would involve increasing American forces by 20,000 troops or more for several months in the hope of improving security, especially in Baghdad. That would mark a sharp rise over the current baseline of 144,000 troops.

But some officials and senior military officers are arguing against the idea, saying that it could undercut a sense of urgency for Iraqi units to take on a greater role in fighting the insurgency and preventing sectarian attacks. General John P. Abizaid, the head of the United States Central Command, told Congress last week that the military was stretched so thin that such an increase could not be sustained over the long term.

8220;There are people who believe a short-term surge would have a beneficial impact, but there isn8217;t universal agreement on that yet,8221; said the senior official, who said that President George W Bush was scheduled to be briefed in the next several weeks on the developing options.

There is far more consensus within the Pentagon on the need to increase the number of US trainers, more than 3,000 of whom are working with Iraqi Army, police and border units. General Abizaid endorsed that idea in general terms in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.

A Pentagon strategy review, ordered by General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is backing the idea, as is a separate panel studying Iraq options, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, the senior official said.

The number of American advisers, who generally work in 11- to 13-member teams attached to Iraqi units, is likely to end up being doubled, the officials said.

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To do that, officials are considering whether they could convert American soldiers in combat units already in Iraq into advisers, working alongside Iraqi security forces, the senior official said. That would reduce the number of Americans exclusively available for combat, but it would enable the advisers8217; ranks to be increased rapidly, instead of the months it would take to train additional advisers in the US.

The Pentagon review is being conducted by more than a dozen officers who have served in Iraq and are regarded as some of the military8217;s most experienced thinkers about the problems there. The group appears to have rejected other more radical options, including a rapid withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and a major long-term increase in troop levels, the senior official said.

8211;DAVID S. CLOUD