U. S. defense minister visits Iraq

BAGHDAD -- From one war front to another yesterday, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta hopped from a U.S. outpost in Afghanistan's southern desert to Baghdad, where he sought to encourage Iraqi leaders to decide soon whether they want a residual American military force beyond year's end.

He refused to say whether the Obama administration wants the extension, but he expressed concern at a spike in U.S. deaths caused by what American officials believe are sophisticated explosive devices made in Iran.

Panetta prepared for talks today with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other members of a government politically divided more than a year after national elections. Iraq has gone without defense or interior ministers in departments responsible for the military and the police.

The approximately 46,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq are to depart by the end of 2011 under an agreement negotiated in 2008 by the Bush administration, which went to war in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein's government.

Asking even a few thousand to stay longer carries political risk for leaders in both countries. A signature pledge of President Barack Obama 2008 election campaign was to get the United States out of Iraq. For Iraqis fed up with violence, a longer U.S. presence looks like a formula for further strife.

The Associated Press reported on July 5 that the White House is offering to keep up to 10,000 troops in Iraq next year, despite opposition from key Democrats who demand that Obama bring home the troops as promised.

Panetta spent yesterday afternoon at Camp Dwyer, a dust-choked U.S. outpost in southern Afghanistan. He pinned Purple Hearts on two Marines, had lunch with young officers and got a glimpse at an Army Black Hawk medevac unit.