Pentagon chief, senators spar over Iraq pullout

WASHINGTON: Pentagon chief Leon Panetta clashed with US lawmakers Tuesday as he defended the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq next month, with the Obama administration coming under fire for the pullout.

In a charged hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Panetta was grilled by Republican "hawks" who accused President Barack Obama of abandoning Iraq for his own political gain.

In a testy exchange with Senator John McCain, the defense secretary rejected the lawmaker's charge that Obama failed to make a sincere effort to broker a deal with Baghdad to keep some US troops in place.

"That's not how it happened," Panetta insisted.

McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who pushed hard for the US troop buildup in Iraq in 2007, shot back: "It is how it happened."

Panetta voiced frustration with McCain's portrayal, saying Baghdad was not prepared to grant legal immunity to US forces and the United States could not simply decide what it wanted in Iraq eight years since a US invasion.

"This is about negotiating with a sovereign country, an independent country. This was about their needs," he said. "This is not about us telling them what we're going to do for them or what they're going to have to do."

Although the Iraqi government was ready to adopt legal protections or US troops, US officials wanted the country's parliament to ratify the safeguards but that proved too difficult, Panetta said.

"I was not about to have our troops go there... without those immunities," he said.

Panetta, however, left the door open to a future US military presence if requested by Baghdad, an apparent contradiction of previous White House statements. (AFP)