JimfromPennsylvania

All those wise sages who were saying we should wait for General Petraeus to testify before we try to determine what he is going to say were right! From the media reports over the past two weeks one would have thought he would have testified the surge is a complete success and stay the course; fortunately, his testimony wasn’t that garbage. Before delving into what the testimony offers for the national debate on Iraq, it deserves to be said that the hearing today demonstrates clearly our country is really fortunate to have the services of these bright and talented professionals in the General and the Ambassador.

Frankly, the hearing was pleasantly surprising from the following standpoint. Our country desperately needs to find a path for Iraq that the majority of Americans, Americans of very varied viewpoints, can walk down. If I interpreted things correctly I think I saw hope for such a path in General Petraeus’ testimony. The implication of General Petraeus’ testimony is that the U.S. strategy in Iraq is changing, it’s changing from the strategy that the U.S. will establish security, the U.S. will shoulder whatever burden that needs to be shouldered to establish security in the troubled spots in Iraq to the U.S. has as a top priority in Iraq transitioning security responsibilities that U.S. troops have been providing in Iraq to Iraqi security forces. If this is the U.S. military’s current strategy, transition security responsibilities to Iraq security forces with high priority, I think this should suffice as the shift in the U.S. policy in Iraq that the majority of the American people and their representatives in Congress want and can live with. It may not be exactly what many Americans want because they want U.S. troops out of harms way in Iraq as quickly as it can be physically be brought about but it could be viewed by these Americans as a compromise that could be lived with in light of the fact that if the U.S. withdrawal is done too quickly and security protections collapse in significant portions of Iraq which common sense indicates could readily happen the world could see atrocities of murder in Iraq that could rival that of the historic human atrocities seen in the Sudan and Bosnia and these Americans have the good sense to know they don’t want this on our country’s hands.

I think for the Senate hearing for tomorrow, the hearing could really benefit the American people if the Senators questioning General Petraeus make it clear for the American people that there is a shift in the U.S. policy in Iraq in this regard, there is a priority to bring the troops home. The Senators should flush out with the General it is not military commands strategy here to bring the surge troops home early to be politically expedient, recognizing that many Americans both members of Congress and ordinary Americans are ready to blow their top with a stay the course strategy in Iraq they have been continually hearing and this bring the surge troops home early gets the pressure off them. There is no scheme here to make it look like the U.S. is on course to bring U.S. troops home but come election season next year when it is going to be practically impossible to delay any supplemental Iraq war funding bills for political reasons U. S. military command decides to stick for the foreseeable future with 130,000 troops in Iraq and this was the plan all along.

The General wouldn’t make any commitment to bringing any more troops home from Iraq past mid-year 2008, understandably so because he doesn’t want to make commitments which would over stress the Iraq army or otherwise cause security set-backs, such definitive decisions like he said could only be made some time around March of 2008. But I would like a Senator to ask the General the following question: No one will hold you General to any commitment here, but if all the trends continue in the same direction the Iraqi security forces progress in their development, the national Iraqi government continues to give Provinces money directly to provide basic societal services to the Iraqi people in their provinces, the Iraqi militiants don’t get significantly more powerful in numbers or weaponry, etc. for the following nine months past mid-year 2008 do you believe that it is probable that military command will recommend that another six brigades be pulled out of Iraq during this time-frame, one every 45 days like the rate for the first half of 2008. If the General supports such a scenario, I think the American people can conclude that the U.S. military Command is supporting a new strategy in Iraq. The next issue is does the White House support the new strategy. I would like to see the Senators ask the General is the General acting independent here is the Admiral and the Joint Chiefs are they all behind this focus on transitioning security responsibilities to Iraqis, Is the White House fully supporting this transition priority?

I would like to see the Senators ask the General in the media one often hears of U.S. forces battling the Mahdi army in the Mahdi Army neighborhoods of Baghdad. When does the General envision the Iraqi army will take on this military mission of wresting control of these Baghdad neighborhoods from the Mahdi Army. One also often sees in the media U.S. troops patrolling streets in Iraqi towns and cities, this is dangerous work, they could be shot by snipers or attacked by a variety of types of bombs this type of work is obviously more dangerous than training Iraqi’s and one would think clearing Iraq of al Qaeda bases (which most of this work would be done by air power) the missions most American hope American soldiers will soon be limited too. Does the General and his staff have an appreciation for the dangerousness of this work and the urgency in getting U.S. soldiers out of this dangerous work and does the General have any time projection when American soldiers will no longer have to face such dangerous missions in Iraq?

RightinNYC

Hey, welcome to DP!

You make some very good points here, and there's a lively discussion about Petraeus's testimony going on in this thread if you care to join in:

http://www.debatepolitics.com/breaki...tml#post630624 (Petraus is on CSPAN now.)

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People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

Billo_Really

Petraeus.........sounds like a Primus CD!

Petraeus might say it's working, but more and more Iraqis say it's not.

I think it's about time before we start hearing a new reason why we are there.

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"With neocons, it just goes to show, when the
bar is low enough, you can never be too wrong!"

Iriemon

As long as that is our strategic goal our strategy in Iraq is unlikely to be successful.

General Petraeus was telling us that the path was looking great in 2004.

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Matthew 5:9

oldreliable67

Notice the progression of this Iraqi's train of thought?

Others interviewed said they wanted American troops to remain in Iraq for as long as three to five years:

In sum, Iraqi's say there is nothing they want more than to have American soldiers leave Iraq, but they also say there is nothing they can afford less.

Source: "For Iraqis, General's Report Offers Bitter Truth", Alissa J. Rubin, NYT, September 12, 2007