The Hawai'i-based commander of 22,000 U.S troops in northern Iraq has rejected a senior military adviser's assessment that the U.S. has done all it can in a corruption-plagued Iraq, and that American troops should be brought home by August 2010 — 16 months earlier than the Pentagon's timetable.

Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr. was reacting to remarks by Col. Timothy R. Reese, chief of the Baghdad Operations Command Advisory Team. Reese said in a highly publicized memo that there is no longer a coherent insurgency, that the U.S. has "reached the point of diminishing returns" with its presence, and that remaining in the country will cause friction with Iraqi security forces "until a violent incident breaks out into the open."

Reese's internal memo, which found its way on to the Internet, is titled, "It's Time for the U.S. to Declare Victory and Go Home." He concludes that Iraqi security forces are "strong enough for the internal security mission."

But Caslen, who commands the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks and for the past 10 months has been in charge of U.S. operations in northern Iraq, echoed other senior military officers in challenging Reese's recent assessment.

"I do not agree with the assessment," Caslen said last week from his headquarters near Tikrit. "(Reese) makes the assumption that there is no relationship between United States forces and Iraqi security forces and that is simply not the case. Our leaders have built some very strong relationships, and the Iraqis value that relationship."

Caslen said it's too soon to pull out of Iraq and quoted Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, who said in response to Reese's report: "Our goal here given us by the president is a secure, stable, sovereign, self-reliant Iraq. We're not there yet."

Caslen made his comments in an interview with The Advertiser.

Current Pentagon plans call for American combat troops to leave Iraq by next August, with a residual force of up to 50,000 troops to train and advise Iraqi security forces until a final pullout by the end of 2011.

About 130,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq now, including about 4,500 Schofield Barracks soldiers under Caslen's command, called Task Force Lightning. Caslen and the Hawai'i soldiers will be returning to Schofield over the next two to three months.

Another 3,000 25th Combat Aviation brigade soldiers from Schofield are preparing to deploy to northern Iraq with 90 helicopters and will hold a deployment ceremony tomorrow.

Reese argues in his memo that remaining in Iraq through December 2011 will yield little in the way of improving the abilities of the Iraqi security forces or government of Iraq.

"The general lack of progress in essential services and good governance is now so broad that it ought to be clear that we are no longer moving the Iraqis forward," Reese said.

The ineffectiveness and corruption of Iraqi ministries "is the stuff of legend," he said.

Further, Reese said the government is "failing to take rational steps" to improve its electrical infrastructure or oil exploration and production.

Political violence and intimidation is rampant in the civilian community as well as military and legal institutions, the Reese memo states.

Reese said the information was drawn from the Baghdad area of operations, but that his reading of reports from other provinces suggests the same situation exists there.

Part of Reese's concerns center on a 2008 security agreement and diminishing U.S. authority that has come with it. Some new U.S. restrictions went into effect on Jan. 1. By June 30, U.S. forces were required to withdraw from Iraqi cities to rural bases.

In Caslen's Pennsylvania-size command known as Multi-National Division-North, one-third of U.S. bases were shuttered or turned over to Iraqis, officials said.

The command said it closed or transferred 19 bases or operations sites to the Iraqis, and will likely return two or three more within the next month. The command operates out of 43 bases.

Reese reports a "sudden coolness" to U.S. commanders and "widespread partnership problems," including Iraqi security forces confronting U.S. troops at traffic control points around Iraq.

Caslen admitted there has been some U.S. troop frustration with certain aspects of the evolving relationship.

Iraqis now police the cities, and the U.S. "partners" with Iraqi forces on missions outside urban areas, he said.

Where improper restrictions have been placed on U.S. forces by increasingly independent Iraqi security forces, their chain of command has been informed, he said. Also, all Iraqi commanders in Iraq were brought together via teleconference to clarify the security agreement requirements, Caslen said.

"So that helped to ease a lot of the issues," he said. Caslen added that "we're working our way through it when we need to, and it's slowly building the relationship back up."

Iraqi forces are "celebrating their leadership — they are celebrating the fact that they are in charge, that they are calling and developing the plans and executing and command and controlling them," Caslen said. "That's the army that we wanted to develop, and that's the army that's out there right now."

In contrast to Reese's characterization, Caslen said, "I think we have an excellent relationship right now with the Iraqi leadership and the Iraqi security forces."

The Iraqis value U.S. capabilities such as helicopter medevac and intelligence, as well as the training they continue to receive on techniques including the use of mortars, night operations and air assault, Caslen said.

Caslen said U.S. casualties are down in Multi-National Division-North.

Over the past 10 months, the command has focused on water, sewage and electricity projects, and as of July 11, 761 "micro grants" totaling $2.8 million had been given out, creating 3,300 jobs for the Iraqi people, officials said.