Washington, June 19: US lawmakers have expressed alarm at the rising number of dead and wounded US troops in Iraq, with some highlighting fears that US forces may be overextended. "While our military did remarkable work in defeating two terrorist regimes in short order, events in Afghanistan and Iraq make it clear that we have a ways to go in both countries," said Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
"The terrorist elements have been defeated, but they haven't been destroyed," he said.
Hunter worried that US forces are stretched thin, with some troops now in Iraq for nearly one year, and with no end in sight to the US military commitment.
"Because we have long-term commitments in Europe and Asia and long-term requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan and don't know how long the global war on terror will last or for that matter, whether it will ever end, we face a future security environment loaded with uncertainty," he said.
"We face uncertain risks associated with the possibility of having to react to a future contingency while the bulk of our forces are already committed elsewhere," Hunter added.
Representative Ike Skelton, ranking democrat on the committee, said the unsettling number of US casualties calls for a review of how the US occupation of Iraq is being conducted.
Bureau Report