| In
2006: |
| Rumsfeld
eyes US pullback in Iraq |
agencies
Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday the
number of U.S. combat troops in Iraq would be
cut by some 7,000 by early next year, but the
number involved in training Iraq's new military
would increase.
Rumsfeld, the second senior U.S. official to
visit Iraq this week in the wake of last week's
election, said progress in Iraq's politics, economics
and security lay behind the decision to scale
back the combat troops.
"
President (George W.) Bush has authorized an
adjustment in U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from
17 to 15," Rumsfeld said, addressing several
hundred U.S. troops at a military camp east of
Falluja.
"
This will include increases in the number of
U.S. forces involved in transition teams, intelligence
support, and logistics, to assist the Iraqi security
forces in continuing to assume greater responsibility
for the security of their country."
"
The adjustment being announced today is a recognition
of the Iraqi people's progress in assuming added
responsibility for their country," Rumsfeld
said, adding that the U.S. and Iraqi governments
would continue to evaluate the troop situation
in the coming months.
Some troops from the two brigades affected
would be transferred from combat to training
Iraqis,
he said.
The Pentagon said in a statement: "The effect
of these adjustments will likely reduce the forces
in Iraq by the Spring of 2006 below the 138,000
baseline," the current normal level of U.S.
troop strength in Iraq.
"
Elements of the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division
will deploy to conduct missions such as providing
security forces and conducting transition training
for Iraqi Security Forces," it added.
"
The 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division has already
deployed to Kuwait and will remain there available
as a call-forward force for the commander, U.S.
Central Command to support operations in Iraq." It
said troop numbers might further fluctuate according
to need.
U.S. Democrats have been pressing the
Bush administration to lay out plans
for a withdrawal.
VIOLENCE
"
We anticipate future coalition force-level discussions
at some point in 2006, after the new Iraqi government
is in place and is prepared to discuss the future," Rumsfeld
said.
He cautioned that Iraq still faced
enormous security challenges.
"
Violence in Iraq, unfortunately, will likely
continue to fluctuate as terrorists and others
try to block Iraq's path to democracy -- the
path now clearly chosen by the overwhelming majority
of the Iraqi people," Rumsfeld
said.
" Ultimately it will be the continued wise choices
by the Iraqi people that will end
the violence over time."
Taking questions from troops, Rumsfeld
said the United States had no
plans to set up
a permanent
base in Iraq, explaining that
the subject had not been raised with Iraqi officials.
"
Until now there has been no one to talk to," he
said.
After leaving Falluja by helicopter,
Rumsfeld boarded a cargo plane
for Amman to see
the training of Iraqi forces
at a Jordanian special
operations
center.
"
As you know, the United States and coalition
countries are anxious to turn over security responsibilities
to you as soon as we are able to do so," he
told an audience of Iraqis there.
He later returned to Baghdad
for a meeting with Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani.
Rumsfeld's trip follows
an eight-hour visit to
Iraq
on Sunday by U.S.
Vice President
Dick Cheney,
a chief architect of
the 2003 U.S.-led invasion
which toppled
former Iraqi
President Saddam
Hussein.
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to to
| After
Katrina: |
| Immigrants
find opportunity in ruined New Orleans |
agencies
Much
of New Orleans lies abandoned and destroyed after
Hurricane Katrina struck nearly four months ago,
but for Latin American immigrants the storm-ravaged
city has become a land of opportunity.
While New Orleans residents are slow to return,
the immigrants, most of them illegally in the
United States, have swarmed in to do the hard
work of cleaning up and rebuilding that others
so far have shunned.
They are not here because of altruism -- New
Orleans is just another place in a strange land
to them -- but because there is a huge unfulfilled
demand for labor and, as a result, high wages
they cannot get in their homeland or in other
U.S. cities.
In a sight common in the southwestern U.S., but
new to New Orleans, they crowd street corners
starting at daybreak, offering themselves as
day laborers to anyone who needs them.
"
You need worker?" asks Carlos Delgado, leaning
against a light pole overlooked by a nearby statue
of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
"
I can put up Sheetrock, roofing, concrete and
I can do clean-up," the 31-year-old Mexico
native says in a mixture of English and Spanish.
He had been in Houston for eight years before
coming to New Orleans in October and like
most of the immigrants lives in a cheap hotel
room
with several acquaintances.
Most days, Delgado and his colleagues --
sometimes as many as 200 on this corner parking
lot near
the New Orleans central business district
-- get hired quickly by contractors in passing
pickup trucks, who whisk them off to whatever
project
is pending.
"
Baby, we couldn't do it without them," one
of the employers shouted through his truck window.
DAILY RATES
There is so much work to be done, the immigrants
say, that often they finish, return to
the corner and get hired the same day for
another
job.
The pay is good -- "$10, $12, $15 an hour," said
Jose Del Rio, 38, from Chihuahua, Mexico -- and
there are few problems.
In Houston, where many were living before
the storm, they occasionally get bilked
by people
who hire them then leave without paying,
but that has not happened as much in New
Orleans.
"
One time, they didn't pay me," said Delgado. "But
for the most part, they have treated me well."
And so far, the authorities have not
been too difficult. Local police do not
hassle
them
and immigration agents come around only
occasionally, more a nuisance than a
danger.
"
They came last week and once before that about
three weeks ago," Delgado said with a shrug. "They
came in cars and took a few people away."
Mexican Adolf Ramirez, 53, who came
to New Orleans from Dallas two months
ago,
figured
the workers
were being left alone because the desperate
needs in New Orleans had trumped anti-immigrant
sentiments
now prevalent in the United States.
The city was mostly abandoned after
Katrina flooded 80 percent of it on
August 29
and most of it
still sits empty and in ruins, waiting
to be rebuilt.
Mayor Ray Nagin said this week studies
showed that as many as 150,000 of the
pre-storm 462,000 residents have returned,
but many
doubt the
figure is that high.
Nagin caused a stir in October when
he was quoted as asking business leaders
how he
could "make
sure New Orleans is not overrun with Mexican
workers," but on Wednesday he sounded a
more conciliatory note in a news conference.
"
I've been encouraging people to get a little
more comfortable with working with people who
don't necessarily look like them. I think there's
room enough for growth for everyone," he
said.
But, he added, "now, illegal people that
are in the country illegally, that's a whole
different story. I would not support them working
in our area."
The immigrant workers do not feel
too threatened by competition from
the
local Americans.
They point to the back of the parking
lot where
the only "gringos" in sight are sleeping
on sheets of cardboard or sitting on wooden boxes,
surrounded by empty beer cans and booze bottles.
"
There are a lot of drunks here," said Delgado.
When asked where the American workers were,
Del Rio shook his head and said, "Who knows?
It just seems like the Latin race likes to work
more."
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