Analysis: Recommended -- more advisors

The Iraq Study Group

WASHINGTON — For more than a year, U.S. commanders have agreed on the need to assign advisors to Iraqi military units to help them secure their country and allow American troops gradually to withdraw. But only about 5,000 of the 135,000 American military in Iraq are now engaged as full-time advisors.

In one of its clearest recommendations Wednesday, the Iraq Study Group called for the military to greatly expand this effort. Boosting the number of advisors to as many as 20,000, the group said, could enable the U.S. military to send home most combat units by early 2008.

But more training would not necessarily make Iraq safer or pave the way for a quick and clean American withdrawal, caution military experts, who noted that the advisory mission is tricky.

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