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Phantom Legions for Iraq

(Washington Post) Jim Hoagland - The Saudi offer to assemble 20,000 to 30,000 Muslim soldiers to help secure Iraq has greater political meaning than military or diplomatic significance. The lofting and likely slow deflation of the Saudi trial balloon should force Bush and Kerry to think through fuzzy competing promises to "internationalize" the military effort in Iraq as part of an undeclared exit strategy for U.S. troops. The price that even close U.S. allies will demand for taking on Iraq's burdens is likely to exceed what Washington will pay. Of greatest U.S. concern is the Saudis' unwillingness to provide the $2 billion a year that one American official estimates it would cost to deploy 20,000 foreign troops. The Saudi demand that U.S. forces be reduced by a number that exactly equals the number of Islamic troops to be deployed is another problem.
2004-08-04 00:00:00
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