In case you haven’t read any news in the past week or so, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are taking center stage today as they provide testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee and then the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the current status / future plans of Iraq. This round of hearings seems a little less hyped and a little more predictable than the hearings last Fall, but they are still very important.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on where your interests lie, the focus with these hearings seems to be more on what the three candidates for president say as opposed to what we learn from the two men placed in charge of Iraq’s reconstruction efforts. We’ll keep a running list of breaking news / reports from the hearings throughout the day on this post.
Armed Services Committee Hearing
- It only took about 20 minutes to have our first interruption from protesters in the hearing. Senator Levin (D-MI) threatened to have them thrown out if further interruptions occur. Not surprisingly, they took place while Senator McCain (R-AZ), who is a strong supporter of the war, was speaking.
- Linked here are some quotes from Senator Levin’s opening remarks. He basically said that the surge had failed and warned that any “pause” in troop reductions would not be welcomed by Democratic members because it would send the wrong signals to Iraqi leaders by not putting pressure on them to act. Linked here is a summary of some of Senator McCain’s remarks. He voiced cautious optimism that the possibility of a stable future in Iraq was possible.
- General Petraeus called for a 45-day period in which no further troop reductions would occur so that an evaluation of the situation may take place. At the end of that period, decisions will be made on future reductions and when they may occur. No set withdrawal timetable will be generated. Linked here are his full opening remarks.
- …and we’ve had our first ejection. A protester who began yelling repeatedly “bring them home” was thrown out of the hearing after being asked to stop several times by Senator Levin.
- General Petraeus, in response to a question by Senator Levin, agreed that the planning and execution of the Iraqi offensive in Basra was not as good as it should have been. That’s about as close as he came to criticizing what some have seen as a failed operation. In response to a later question by Senator McCain, he acknowledged reports that American forces were not informed of the operation until very late in the process as it neared the execution phase.
- Senator Kennedy (D-MA) says that the “President sees one Iraq and we see another.” Obviously a collective “we” meaning those who oppose the war.
- Senator Lieberman (ID-CT) says that opponents of the war seem to have a policy of “hear no progress, see no progress and speak of no progress in Iraq.” He hopes that both sides can agree on the facts.
- Senator Graham (R-SC) heaped praise on General Petraeus, who is a four-star general, saying “if I could promote you up to five stars I would.” When questioned about the potential danger of withdrawing large amounts of troops at one time, General Petraeus stated that “war is a calculus, not arithmetic” and that a timetable withdrawal effort would not work.
- Here is a summary of Senator Clinton’s (D-NY) questioning. Ambassador Crocker reiterated previous reports that any future agreements about American forces staying in Iraq would likely not have to come before Congress for its approval.
- During questioning by Senator Martinez (R-FL), General Petraeus stated that recent rocket attacks in international zones within Iraq included rockets provided by forces within Iran.
- In what might have been a little jab at Senator Clinton, Senator Wicker (R-MS) said that denying the progress made in Iraq would require a “major suspension of disbelief.” He came awfully close to imitating a line used by Senator Clinton during a hearing last Fall when she said a progress report on the situation in Iraq required “a willing suspension of disbelief.”
