Contingency plans started, officials say
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | September 24, 2004

WASHINGTON -- US military commanders are quietly drawing up contingency plans to deploy thousands more active-duty American troops to Iraq before January's planned elections amid growing concerns that sufficient Iraqi forces may not be ready in time to protect voters and retake parts of the country under insurgent control, senior military officials said yesterday.

With US efforts to convince United Nations members to provide for election security falling flat, senior Pentagon officials said they are banking on tens of thousands more newly trained Iraqi security forces to fill the gap in the next few months.

But with the mixed performance of Iraqi forces so far -- and conflicting reports on the progress of their training -- more American troops may be the only option if the election is to go off as planned, the senior officials said on condition of anonymity. Keeping to the election timetable was a key pledge repeated yesterday in Washington by both President Bush and interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of Iraq.