WASHINGTON — Military commanders are drawing up plans for a faster withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in anticipation that President-elect Barack Obama will reject current proposals as too slow, Pentagon and military officials said Wednesday.The new plans would provide alternatives to an earlier timetable to bring troops home more slowly than Obama promised during his campaign. Those plans were described to Obama last month.
The officials said Obama had not requested the new plans, but that they were being prepared based on talks with members of Obama's transition team.
A drawdown in Iraq is seen as a prerequisite to any significant American military buildup in Afghanistan, where Obama is ready to add up to 30,000 troops over the next two years, a near doubling of the current American force there.
The broad outlines of the military plan for Iraq presented to Obama in December envisioned withdrawing two brigades, or 7,000 to 8,000 troops, over the next six months, officials said.
American military officials have declined to be more specific about other details in that plan by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Gen. Ray Odierno, the top American commanders responsible for Iraq. But they have made clear that the plan did not set forth as fast a withdrawal as Obama pledged during the presidential campaign, when he repeatedly promised to have all combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months of his taking office, or by May 2010.
Officials with Obama's transition team say he remains committed to that goal, although he has also said he will listen to the recommendations of his commanders.