Pentagon team reviews Iraq war strategy

Top U.S. military leaders have begun a broad review of strategy in Iraq and other crisis areas in the Bush administration's campaign against terrorism, The New York Times reported in Saturday editions.

Citing Pentagon officials, the Times reported that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace had assembled a team of what it called some of the military's brightest and most innovative officers and charged them with taking a fresh look at Iraq, Afghanistan and other flashpoints.

Pace announced the review in a series of television interviews on Friday but did not give many details.

The New York Times said that among ideas discussed were increasing the size of the Iraqi security forces, along with U.S. efforts to train and equip them, and adjusting the size of the American force in Iraq.

It added that Pentagon officials stressed that the review extended well beyond Iraq, and that some unorthodox ideas on how to fight terrorism were being weighed.

The military review, which formally began September 25, is being coordinated with the rest of the government, but the team has not met with members of the Iraq Study Group, the commission that is also looking into options for Iraq, the Times said, citing the Pentagon officials.

The officials said the team's objective was to outline options that Pace might draw on in advising President George W. Bush and Robert Gates, Bush's choice for the new defense secretary.

The team involved in the military review includes Col. H. R. McMaster, an Army officer whose 2005 operation in Tal Afar has been cited as a textbook case in how to wage counterinsurgency in Iraq, as well as Col. Peter Mansoor, the director of the United States Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., who commanded an Army brigade that fought the Mahdi Army militia in 2004 at Karbala, the newspaper reported.

Also on the team is Col. Thomas Greenwood, the director of the Marine Command and Staff College who oversaw efforts to train Iraqi security forces in Anbar, the Times said. In all, more than a dozen military officers are on the team, which is overseen by Capt. Michael Rogers of the Navy, a special assistant to Pace, the report said.

The review, which includes the participation of Gen. George Casey Jr., the top commander in Iraq, and General John Abizaid, the head of the United States Central Command, is meant to be completed in early December.