Fort Leavenworth ? A retired Army general said Tuesday that the election of a new U.S. president next year will hasten the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and improve global opinion of America’s foreign policy.

Barry McCaffrey, who led troops during the first war in Iraq in 1991 and was the nation’s drug czar during the Clinton administration, told attendees at a symposium at Fort Leavenworth that he expects the U.S. to be out of Iraq within three years. He believes that no matter who is elected, that person will bring the troops home.

McCaffrey also said a change in U.S. leadership will help restore standing with allies in Europe, including France, Ireland and Poland. “Global animosity toward U.S. foreign policy is universal, intense and growing,” McCaffrey said.

His remarks opened a three-day symposium hosted by Fort Leavenworth’s Combat Studies Institute looking into the implications of nontraditional players in warfare on the U.S. Army. Also scheduled to speak are Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, commander of Fort Leavenworth and former U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, and Missouri Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton, who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

On Monday, Skelton heard from the commanding general of the war in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker as they made their case for giving the military more time to help the Iraqis build the military and political structures. Petraeus said conditions were improving and that military objectives of the surge of 30,000 additional troops this year were “largely” being met.

But he also told two House committees on Monday that he envisions the withdrawal of as many as 30,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by next summer, down from more than 160,000. Bush is expected to embrace the withdrawal goals when he unveils his plan for Iraq later this week.

McCaffrey frequently visits Iraq and Afghanistan and said he believes the Army needs 800,000 soldiers to keep its national security responsibilities. He also said the Army is nearing a breaking point with the demands placed on it and doesn’t have enough resources, even if the U.S. leaves Iraq.

McCaffrey said the nation’s elected officials need to make a plea for more Americans to join the military.

“I have never heard one mayor, governor, congressman or president of the United States get on TV and say, ‘The country’s in peril. There’s 300 million of us. We’re in a long war. We want your son or daughter to come in and fight to protect us,”‘ McCaffrey said.

“We’re talking about 33,000 killed or wounded. If we are collectively in danger, why haven’t our elected leaders gone to the country and said, ‘We want you to serve?”‘

The Army has shrunk significantly since the end of World War II, when there were 8 million soldiers in uniform. That number has continued to decline over the years, despite buildups for fighting in Korea and Vietnam.

Adrian Lewis, chairman of the history department at the University of North Texas, said that pattern has to change if the United States is to continue its responsibilities domestically and abroad.

“The Army is too small. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to figure that out,” said Lewis, a former Army infantry major with a doctorate.

Lewis said the nation needs to decide if it’s truly at war, adding that those with sons and daughters in uniform are “100 percent committed” to the effort.

“This is not a national effort. Putting a yellow sticker on your car does not make it a national war,” Lewis said.

McCaffrey also cautioned against shifting the military’s focus too much toward training and equipping for conflicts that resemble the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said conventional capabilities, such as the new F-22 fighter plane and naval forces, could be essential in fighting other conflicts.

“We need to maintain a capacity to conduct high-intensity combat operations and also do this other stuff. But I’ll be damned if I want to see us reposition the military to do this kind of thing. I might want to reposition the national security policy to not do it,” he said.