A panel of retired police and military officers are recommending the United States begin reducing its troop presence in Iraq because the massive military occupation is conveying an image that the U.S. plans to permanently stay in Iraq. The panel’s head, Gen. James Jones, told the Senate Armed Services Committee: “The force footprint should be adjusted.” But Jones also warned against an immediate pullout of troops.

Gen. James Jones: “I think that a precipitous departure which results in a failed state in Iraq will have a significant boost in the numbers of extremists, jihadists, however you want to call it, in the world, who believe that they will have toppled the major power on earth and that all else is possible. And I think it will not only make us less safe, it will make our friends and allies less safe, and the struggle will continue. It will simply be done in different — in other areas.”

The panel also recommended the Iraqi police force be dissolved because it has been infiltrated by Shiite militias.

Former Washington, D.C., Police Chief Charles Ramsey: “I have never in 38 years of policing experienced a situation where there was so much negativity around any particular police force. It was unbelievable, the amount of negative comments we got. Whether we were speaking with Iraqi army, with Iraqi police service, it didn’t seem to matter, or community members. There was almost a universal feeling that the national police were highly sectarian, were corrupt, had been accused of having death squads and the like.”