The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

Dismantling the sprawling US military presence in Iraq will be a huge and complex undertaking, US military officials say, even in the three years allowed for the withdrawal of all US forces.

Tens of thousands of pieces of equipment-from tanks to tents to ammo carriers-will have to be packed up and shipped somewhere by December 31, 2011 under a landmark status of forces agreement now before the Iraqi parliament.

How fast they come out, how much will be left behind, and where it will all go are among the decisions that soon will be facing US military leaders and their logisticians if the agreement is ratified.

"I look at it as an orchestra. It's got to be in tune. It's got to be synchronized. That's what we do," said Major General Charles Anderson, the deputy commander of US Army forces in the Central Command region.

Anderson will be a key player on the ground in managing the movement of US army forces out of Iraq, but he would be the first to tell you that other commands and military services have major roles, too.

There is a lot of stuff in Iraq, Anderson acknowledges.

"You got to consider we've been there since 2003. And being there since 2003 you do accumulate a lot," he said in an interview with AFP.

The army alone has more than 19,500 "ground systems" in Iraq, including trucks, Humvees, Mine Resistant Armored Protected (MRAP) vehicles, and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, an army official said. It also has 470 helicopters, he said.

But after more than five years in Iraq, the US military has put in place an efficient system that can move a 3,500-strong brigade a month into Iraq and another out of it, almost at the same time.

Troops fly out of the country by air, and equipment is mostly sent overland to Kuwait, where it is sorted out, washed, inspected, packed into containers and loaded onto ships.

Where it used to take six months for equipment to get back to maintenance depots at the United States, it now takes two months, according to the US Army's Materiel Command

At the depots, war damaged or worn out equipment is repaired or stripped down and rebuilt like new.

"Anytime you move a 55,000 pound Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected Vehicle (MRAP), or you move a 70-tonne tank, it's hard," Anderson said.