Staying the Course: Petraeus, Crocker Recommend Continuing the Surge

Amid protests and partisan posturing the top military commander and diplomat in Iraq testified before Congress, reporting mild progress in stabilizing the country. Both agree that the war is far from over.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


A capacity crowd awaited General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker in the Cannon House Office Building’s formal Caucus room, where, illuminated by overhead chandeliers, the pair testified all afternoon and into the evening, delivering their long-anticipated progress report on Iraq. Addressing a joint session of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, Petraeus and Crocker expressed their belief that the so-called surge has been successful in improving the security situation in Iraq and recommended that the United States maintain heightened troop levels into next year. Meanwhile, they acknowledged that stabilizing the country—economically, politically, militarily—remains a distant goal.

For all of the strategizing and planning that preceded it, the hearing was peppered with unscripted moments. Peace protesters interrupted the proceedings on numerous occasions, shouting anti-war slogans and provoking threats of prosecution from Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), who ordered them removed by the Capitol Police. (Cindy Sheehan was among those arrested.) When it came time for Petraeus to deliver his remarks, a problem with the general’s microphone caused further delay. The interruptions seemed almost more than Skelton could bear. “This is a really important hearing!” he said at one point. After another protestor was hauled out of the hearing, his attempts to restore some dignity to the proceedings faded when he muttered, apparently unaware his microphone was still on, “That really pisses me off, damn it!”

As the hearing resumed, Petraeus appeared unruffled by the distractions, launching into a detailed assessment of the effects of the surge on the security situation in Iraq. The general recapped many of the successes that have been promoted by congressional Republicans in a series of hearings last week: U.S. forces have dealt “significant blows” to Al Qaeda in Iraq; Shia militias have been “disrupted”; both sectarian attacks and civilian deaths are declining; Iraqi security forces are beginning to “shoulder more of the load”; and, most notably, Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province have turned on Al Qaeda and are now cooperating with U.S. forces. Petraeus emphasized this last point, noting that similar local alliances are now taking shape in Diyala and Nineveh provinces.

Petraeus accompanied his presentation with a series of charts portraying security improvements in several areas, such as the number of insurgent attacks, arms caches found and cleared, terrorist leaders captured, and the prevalence of sectarian attacks in Baghdad. Most showed mild signs of improvement, though some, including the Government Accountability Office, have questioned the accuracy of his statistics.

Having emphasized these “successes,” Petraeus finally arrived at what those assembled had been waiting to hear: his suggested timetable for a drawdown of U.S. troops. According to Petraeus, a Marine expeditionary unit will depart Iraq later this month, to be followed, if his recommendations are approved, by an additional combat brigade in December. All told, he proposes drawing down troops to pre-surge levels by mid-July 2008 and said that further redeployments would likely follow. “Force reductions will continue beyond the pre-surge levels of brigade combat teams that we will reach by mid-July 2008,” he said. “However, in my professional judgment, it would be premature to make recommendations on the pace of such reductions at this time.”

Of the two witnesses, Ambassador Crocker faced the greater challenge in portraying the positive effects of the surge. While Petraeus could point to security improvements, Crocker had few successes to highlight in his testimony. The surge had originally been designed to lay the groundwork for a political reconciliation between Iraq’s fractured, sectarian-based parties. Yet, eight months after the surge was unveiled by President Bush, there has been virtually no progress toward creating a functional central government in Baghdad, though Crocker pointed to political gains at the provincial level.

Still, Crocker remained optimistic. “A secure, stable democratic Iraq, at peace with its neighbors, is attainable,” he said. “The progress will not be quick, it will be uneven, punctuated by setbacks as well as achievements, and it will require substantial U.S. resolve and commitment. There will be no single moment at which we can claim victory; any turning point will likely be recognized only in retrospect.”

But as bad as things have gotten in Iraq, Crocker said, pulling out of Iraq prematurely could carry dire consequences for the Unites States, such as creating a power vacuum that would likely be filled by Iran—not to mention a vast refugee crisis. “An Iraq that falls into chaos or civil war will mean massive human suffering,” he said.

“Our current course is hard,” Crocker acknowledged. “The alternatives are far worse.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate