Petraeus backs pause in Iraq troop cuts in July

Commander wants a 45-day ‘period of consolidation and evaluation’

WASHINGTON - The U.S. general commanding the Iraq war called Tuesday for an open-ended suspension of U.S. troop withdrawals this summer, asserting that an overly rapid withdrawal would jeopardize recent security gains.

Gen. David Petraeus told a Senate hearing that he recommends a 45-day “period of consolidation and evaluation” once the extra combat forces that President Bush ordered to Iraq last year have completed their pullout in July. He did not commit to a timetable for resuming troop reductions after the 45-day pause.

“At the end of that period, we will commence a process of assessment to examine the conditions on the ground and, over time, determine when we can make recommendations for further reductions,” Petraeus said.

Bush is expected to accept Petraeus' recommendation.

Under questioning by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Petraeus said he could not predict when troop reductions would be resumed or how many U.S. troops were likely to remain in Iraq by the end of this year. There currently are 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and the Pentagon has projected that when the scheduled troop withdrawals are completed in July there will be about 140,000 troops there.

Levin reminded Petraeus that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said a pause in troop reductions should be brief, and the senator said the Petraeus plan amounted to an open-ended suspension.

“What you’ve given to your chain of command is a plan which has no end to it,” Levin said. He asked Petraeus when he would be in position to recommend further troop cuts, once the 45-day evaluation period ends in September.

“It could be right then, or it could be longer,” the general said. He declined to be pinned down, saying he would recommend further cuts when conditions were right.

During the exchange with Levin, the hearing was briefly interrupted by one protester repeatedly shouting, “Bring them home!” The protester was removed from the hearing room by two members of the Capitol Police force.

Petraeus described the security situation in Iraq as improved since he last appeared before Congress in September, but still fragile and the gains reversible.

He complained of Iranian support for insurgents and asserted that withdrawing U.S. forces too quickly would jeopardize security gains achieved over the past year.

Petraeus also said the recent flare-up of violence in Basra, in Baghdad and elsewhere points up the importance of the cease-fire declared last year by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and highlighted the role Iran allegedly plays in funding and training Shiite militias through cells the U.S. military calls “special groups.”

“Unchecked, the special groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq,” Petraeus said.

Ambassador testifies as well
Testifying beside Petraeus was Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, who echoed Petraeus’ assessment of real but fragile security gains.

Crocker also focused on the violence in the southern city of Basra, where Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki dispatched Iraqi security forces to combat Shiite militias.

“Taken as a snapshot, with scenes of increasing violence, and masked gunmen in the streets, it is hard to see how this situation supports a narrative of progress in Iraq,” Crocker said. “There is still very much to be done to bring full government control to the streets of Basra and eliminate entrenched extremist, criminal, and militia groups. When viewed with a broader lens, the Iraqi decision to combat these groups in Basra has major significance.”

Crocker said a long-term agreement the U.S. is now negotiating with Iraq will give a needed legal framework for the continued presence of U.S. troops. Many in Congress have raised alarm about the agreement, and Democrats have accused the White House of trying to set troop levels or other elements of the Bush policy in stone ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

“The agreement will not establish permanent bases in Iraq, and we anticipate that it will expressly foreswear them,” Crocker said. “The agreement will not specify troop levels, and it will not tie the hands of the next administration.”

Instead, Crocker said, the U.S. negotiators want to make sure that the next U.S. president “arrives in office with a stable foundation upon which to base policy decisions.”

Democratic objections
In his opening statement, Levin said that Bush would remove needed pressure on the Iraqi government if he decides to halt the drawdown of U.S. troops.

"An announcement of an open-ended pause in troop reductions, starting in July, would simply send the wrong message to the Iraqi leaders," he said.

Levin was followed by the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

"Much more needs to be done, and Iraq's leaders need to know that we expect them to show the necessary leadership to rebuild their country, for only they can," McCain told the committee. "But today, it is possible to talk with real hope and optimism about the future of Iraq and the outcome of our efforts there."

Democrats have acknowledged that they are more or less helpless in trying to force Bush's hand on the war. While anti-war legislation has been able to pass the House, it repeatedly sinks in the Senate, where Democrats lack the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles.

They contend, however, that come fall dissatisfied voters will head to the polls and put more Democrats in power, possibly including an anti-war president. In last month's Associated Press-Ipsos poll, only 31 percent said they approve of the job Bush is doing on Iraq.

Indeed, Tuesday's hearings are expected to be as much about the presidential elections as they are about the situation in Iraq. The three major candidates for president are on the committees for which Petraeus is providing testimony.

Sen. McCain of Arizona, the No. 1 Republican on the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a member of the panel, were expected to use the morning committee hearing to showcase their opposing views on the war.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois will get his chance later in the afternoon as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Clinton, in an interview Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America," said she planned to highlight her view the troop buildup had failed in its stated purpose, "to give the Iraqi government space and time to do what it needed to do when it came to allocating oil revenues, improving services, coming to some political reconciliation."

For his part, Obama told NBC's "Today" show, "The most important issue is still the one that was asked in September," when Petraeus testified before Congress, "which is how has this war made us safer and at what point do we know that there is success so we can start bringing our troops home."

Violence is down
For now, Petraeus faces a dramatically different political landscape than last fall when support for the war had been eroding steadily among Republicans. Petraeus' testimony helped prevent Republican defections at the time. And since then, a significant drop in violence has helped stave off legislation ordering troops home.

Recent statistics reviewed by the AP show that while violence in Iraq is still down substantially, there have been spikes in both deaths and attacks since the slow withdrawal of U.S. troops began in December.

The internal strife was underscored by a rise in sectarian violence among Iraqis in March, the first such monthly increase since last July.

Defense officials also warned Monday of another likely spike in attacks this week, as U.S. forces strike back at Shiite militia fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City district. And officials also said there are indications that al-Qaida in Iraq is looking for an opportunity to reassert its influence in the Baghdad region.

Petraeus' presentation included statistics reflecting the reduction in violence over the past seven months. 

Also this week, possibly on Thursday when Bush addresses the nation on the war, the administration plans to announce that soldiers will spend no longer than 12 months at a time in combat, a decrease of three months in current combat tours.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24007825/

Al-Sadr threatens to end cease-fire

New clashes as cleric demands government protect Iraqis from U.S. 'militias'

BAGHDAD - Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded Tuesday that the Iraqi government protect the public from "the booby traps and American militias" or he could formally end the freeze he imposed seven months ago on his Mahdi Army fighters.

The statement was circulated to the press and public as U.S. and Iraqi troops stepped up their pressure on Shiite militiamen in their Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.

Al-Sadr also wants a timetable for the U.S. to leave Iraq. His cease-fire helped bring down violence but has been under severe strain since fighting broke out last month in Basra and Baghdad.

Hundreds of civilians have already fled Baghdad's Sadr City, where gunbattles have raged since last week. The neighborhood, the nerve center of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, has been under siege by about 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Fighting broke out again early Tuesday morning after Iraqi units tried to enter the cleric’s stronghold, a police officer said.

The boom of explosions could be heard across much of Baghdad, apparently coming from the neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. Low-flying jets circled the center of the capital several hours before sunrise.

The two sides were using small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars in the ongoing combat, said the police officer, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information to the media.

Al-Sadr’s aides said Monday that he would only dismantle the powerful militia — estimated at up to 60,000 — if ordered by top Shiite clerics, who have remained silent throughout the increasingly dangerous showdown.

Worrisome backdrop to Petraeus report
The fighting comes as Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, prepared to testify Tuesday on the war.

He was expected to tell two Senate committees that last year’s influx of 30,000 troops to Iraq had helped calm some of the sectarian violence but that to prevent a backslide in security, troops would likely be needed in large numbers through the end of the year.

An American soldier died Tuesday from wounds received in a roadside explosion. He was the 11th U.S. serviceman killed in Iraq since Sunday.

The rapid tumble back to street battles in Baghdad — at an intensity not seen since last year’s flood of U.S. troops into the city — is a worrisome backdrop to the planned appearance before Congress by Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to report on progress in Iraq.

Al-Maliki raises the stakes
With the crisis showing no sign of abating, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki raised the stakes.

The Shiite prime minister told CNN on Sunday that al-Sadr and his followers would not be allowed to participate in politics or run in provincial elections this fall “unless they end the Mahdi Army.”

Al-Maliki’s statement followed a weekend declaration by top Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders to support legislation banning any party that maintained a militia.

An al-Sadr aide, Hassan al-Zarqani, told The Associated Press by telephone from Iran that the Sadrists would consult Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and other top Shiite clerics in Iraq. If they “recommend he disband the Mahdi Army, he will obey,” al-Zarqani said.

But it was unclear whether the statement signaled any significant change in strategy by the Sadrist movement. Al-Sadr has maintained for years that only the sect’s top clergy could disband the Mahdi militia.

The crisis erupted March 25 when al-Maliki launched a crackdown against Shiite militias and so-called “criminal gangs” in the southern port city of Basra.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23992978/

   General David Petraeus, the Field Commander in Iraq and Ryan Crocker, the Ambassador to Iraq have requested a pause in further troop reductions in the Iraq occupational forces. In my opinion, that is a tactical necessity at the moment, since Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki has finally decided to move against the large Shite militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, the 60,000 man Mahdi Army, resulting in militia attacks on the American forces in Baghdad and Iraqi forces in Basra. In my opinion we need the 140,000 American troops in Iraq to crush and disarm the Mahdi Army and all other armed Iraqi militias. In my opinion, ridding Iraq of all armed militias will bring law and order to the country as the criminal elements in Iraq use the militias as cover for their large robbery, kidnapping and extortion rings. Now is not the time to withdraw in Iraq. Now is the time to fight with the clear military mission of destroying and/or disarming all Iraqi militias, especially Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army!

tags: iraq  war on terror  us  david petraeus  ryan crocker  nouri al maliki  muqtada al sadr  mahdi army  politics  2008  

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