Top US chief says Iraq security a 'stunning' achievement

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Tuesday during a flight to Baghdad that the planned drawdown of US troops in Iraq was on track due to the "stunning" progress in security over the past three years.

The United States currently has about 77,500 soldiers in Iraq but all combat troops are due out by September 1, leaving a training and advisory force of 50,000. All remaining troops are scheduled to leave by December 2011, according to an agreement reached in the previous adminstration.

If the withdrawal occurs as scheduled, with no burning of the cities precipitating that withdrawal, then we can know with certainty that the events of the invasion, capture and occupation of Iraq by US-led coalition forces is not the fulfillment of Jeremiah's 2,600 year-old prophecy of doom on Babylon.

The chief's comments come the day after a suicide bomber blew himself up in Baghdad, killing six, and two car bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims killed 25 people in Karbala, according to the Associated Press.