Text 29274, 112 rader
Skriven 2007-07-19 20:02:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Iraq
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Will the left listen or try to run the war ?  Rhetorical.

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http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=6741965

Commanders and U.S. envoy seek more time for Iraq 
By THOM SHANKER and DAVID S. CLOUD

Thursday, July 19, 2007 

 WASHINGTON: The top commanders in Iraq and the American ambassador to 
Baghdad used video links with Washington on Thursday to appeal for more 
time, both to allow for success on the ground, and to more fully assess 
if the new strategy is making gains.

But their appeals, in a trio of video sessions to Capitol Hill and the 
Pentagon, were met with stern rebukes from lawmakers from both parties.

Senior Republicans and Democrats told the generals and the ambassador 
that time is running out, both for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki 
to reach accommodation with warring religious factions inside the 
country and for what remains of Congressional support for the heightened 
troop levels that President Bush ordered in January.

"There's got to be some real evidence that action's taking place there 
and everything you can do to convey to Mr. Maliki and his executive 
committee, to the other players in the region, that the American 
people's patience is running out," Senator George V. Voinovich, 
Republican of Ohio, said to the television image of Ambassador Ryan C. 
Crocker.

The request for more time came a day after Senate Democrats halted 
debate on American strategy in Iraq after being thwarted yet again by 
Republicans who blocked a plan that would have imposed a timetable for 
an American withdrawal. The move is expected to defer any Congressional 
action until at least Sept. 15, when the American commander in Iraq, 
General David H. Petraeus, and Ambassador Crocker are due to submit a 
major progress report. 

In their comments on Thursday, the American generals and Mr. Crocker 
seemed to caution that the report would be only a snapshot, much as they 
did in seeking to minimize the significance of an early, mixed progress 
report submitted last week. But senior lawmakers sought on Thursday to 
signal that they would regard September as a deadline for deciding the 
future of the American commitment to Iraq.

"We're not staying," added Senator Joseph R. Biden, the Delaware 
Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. "You 
don't have much time."

At the Pentagon, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the senior ground commander 
in Iraq, said that while he would be able to provide an assessment of 
the progress of the new military strategy in mid-September, it would 
take at least 45 days beyond that to know with more certainty whether 
the strategy was working.

"In order to do a good assessment I need at least until November," he 
said during a video briefing with Pentagon reporters.

General Odierno said there had been "significant success" in rooting out 
insurgents, both within Baghdad and in towns surrounding the capital. 
But in an implicit argument for more time, he said it would not be 
possible to know by September whether these were "just a blip."

Earlier in the day in a classified question-and-answer session with 
members of the House and Senate, who had come to the Pentagon, General 
Petraeus was 

asked by one lawmaker what affect a troop drawdown would have. According 
to a senior Pentagon official, General Petraeus responded, that "it 
would clearly put more pressure on the Iraqis who are already under a 
lot of pressure."

Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the ranking Republican on the 
Foreign Relations Committee, quizzed Ambassador Crocker about his role 
in any planning underway at the National Security Council, State 
Department or Pentagon for the revised strategy in Iraq once the troop 
increase has run its course.

The ambassador said his efforts were solely on implementing the current 
strategy. "I am not aware of these efforts and my whole focus is 
involved in the implementation of Plan A," Mr. Crocker said.

And the ambassador warned that any decrease of American forces in Iraq 
that was not based on improving conditions would invite increased 
terrorist violence and risk country-wide chaos.

"If there is one word I would use to sum up the atmosphere in Iraq — on 
the streets, in the countryside, in the neighborhoods and at the 
national level — that word would be fear," said Mr. Crocker, who has 
served twice previously in Iraq and is one of the State Department's 
experts on Middle Eastern affairs.

The unusual testimony by Mr. Crocker to the Foreign Relations Committee 
was shown on four, large flat-screen televisions pointed at the senators 
and the gallery. The session, however, was plagued by repeated technical 
difficulties that disrupted both the image and the sound.

"Baghdad, can you hear the U.S. Senate?" Mr. Biden said into his 
microphone at one point when the communications with Mr. Crocker went 
silent.

An activist for the Code Pink anti-war movement shouted from the 
gallery, "Senate, can you hear the American people?"


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