North America

摘要

Although incoming US President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, within weeks of his election victory in November 2008 he had indicated that Dr Robert Gates would continue to serve as defence secretary. Soon after the inauguration, Obama acceded to the recommendations of Gates, General David Petraeus and other key officials in revising the Iraq plan that had been central to his presidential campaign. Rather than remove all US combat forces within 16 months of the inauguration, Obama decided to take 19 months, to proceed slowly in drawing down troops throughout 2009, and to plan to retain the equivalent of five combat brigades in Iraq after the drawdown was complete. (Those brigades, called Advisory and Assistance Brigades, are modified versions of traditional combat formations with trainers and advisers, though retaining significant combat capability.)