Petraeus: Insurgency will go on 'a year or even two years'; 'Historically, counter-insurgency operations have gone at least nine or 10 years'

A soldier with 215 Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade on a 'presence patrol' out of Forward Operating Base Lutafiyah in Baghdad on June 2nd.

The US commander in Iraq says American troops could be needed in the country for a decade to battle insurgents.

General David Petraeus has told Fox News there is broad recognition that Iraq's daunting challenges will not be resolved "in a year or even two years".

"In fact, typically, I think historically, counter-insurgency operations have gone at least nine or 10 years," he said.

General Petraeus was responding to a question about whether US forces could face a Korea-style deployment in Iraq for decades.

He said any long-term deployment would depend on whether the Iraqi Government wanted to extend the US military presence.

"I'm not sure what the right analogy is, whether it's Korea or what have you," he said.

But he emphasised that a long-term security arrangement was "probably a fairly realistic assessment".

Read the rest at ABC Australia

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