US looking at staging troops in Kuwait after Iraq withdrawal

AP:

The Obama administration is considering staging American troops in Kuwait next year as a backup or rotational training force for Iraq, after the Pentagon completes the scheduled withdrawal of its current 45,000-strong force from Iraq in December, U.S. officials said.

The proposal, not yet announced, is among a number of options the administration is considering for extending its military training role in still-violent Iraq, whose divided government has been reluctant to ask Washington directly to keep troops on its soil beyond this year.

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The Obama administration favors a proposal that would leave 3,000 to 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq next year to train Iraqi forces, U.S. officials said this week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Iraq has not yet asked for any extension of forces.

It has not previously been reported that staging U.S. forces in Kuwait as a part of that training mission, or possibly along with that mission, is being considered. One of the U.S. officials said the administration would foresee the Kuwait arrangement lasting for three years, starting in 2012, with troops rotating into Iraq for six-month stints. No decisions have been made, and it was not clear whether direct talks with the Kuwaiti government have begun.

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I think the 3000 troop level is too small to be effective in a country the size of Iraq. The story does not indicate how many troops would be based in Kuwait. but since the military wanted between 25,000 and 30,000 it might allow a force of sufficient size to lead with many Iraqi contingencies and it would give Kuwait and other Gulf states so assurance against an Iranian invasion.