US to ease tension with new Iraqi army

THE UNITED STATES yesterday announced new plans to pacify angry former Iraqi soldiers and create a new Iraqi army as two visiting US senators said American soldiers could stay for more than five years.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, urged President Bush to do some “real truth-telling” to explain to his people how much commitment and money would be needed to rebuild the country from the ruins of war and 35 years of Ba’athist rule.

“I think we’re going to be here in a big way with forces and economic input for a minimum of three to five years,” his Democrat colleague Joseph Biden of Delaware told reporters.