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Senators Grill General Petraeus
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ShareSeptember 11, 2007 10:58 AM
ABC News' Jennifer Parker reports: On his second day of testimony to Congress about the future of the Iraq war, Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, faced criticism from senators in two, almost back-to-back hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee.
One Republican senator, who announced this week he would not be running for president or any other elected office in 2008, had one of the angriest exchanges of the day.
"Are we going to continue to invest American blood and treasure at the same rate we're doing now? For what," demanded Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. "The President said, 'let's buy time.' Buy time for what?" Hagel asked, arguing Iraq's national leaders have not made progress on quelling sectarian violence.
"We have got too many disconnects here, General -- way too many disconnects," Hagel said. "This is the administration's fault, we have never ever looked at Iraq in the larger strategic context."
Hagel also launched into an attack of Ambassador Crocker's assertion that if U.S. forces pull out of Iraq, Iraq could degenerate into a civil war.
"We going to see Iraq devolving into a civil war? Come on. Our National Intelligence Estimate says we're already in a civil war," Hagel charged.
Five senators running for president also had the opportunity to grill Petraeus -- who said the troop surge should continue until summer of 2008, upon when U.S. troop levels in Iraq would go down to the pre-surge level of 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Among them was Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Democratic presidential candidate, who implored the general to end the President's military surge strategy.
"The American people will not support an infinite war whose sole remaining purpose is to prevent the situation in Iraq from becoming worse than it is today," Biden said.
Biden argued the point of the surge was to give Iraqi national leaders breathing room to stem ethic and sectarian violence and tensions, and that hasn't happened.
"It's time to turn the corner," Biden said. "We should stop the surge and start bringing our troops home."
Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., told the general " you have been made the defacto spokesman for what many of us believe to be a failed policy."
Clinton accused the general of dodging a question first posed by Biden earlier in the day about how long U.S. troops will remain in Iraq.
"If in fact the circumstances on the ground are exactly what they are today in March of next year, will you recommend the continuation of somewhere between 130 to 160- thousand troops being shot at
killed and maimed everyday?" Clinton pressed Petraeus.
"I would be very hard pressed at that time to recommend a continuation," Petraeus responded. But he said, "it is an awfully big hypothetical and it is not something that would want to try to determine right here right now about a point a year from now."
Another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., also disagreed with Petraeus' assessment that the surge had worked to quel violence in Iraq.
"We're seeing nothing getting better here at all," Dodd said. "How do we justify this continuation?"
Outside the hearing room, Dodd said Petraeus and Crocker were delivering "happy-talk" about the progress made in Iraq. "Happy talk doesn't get the job done," he told reporters.
As he was leaving the committee hearing, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told reporters that he was not persuaded by the officials' assessment of progress on Iraq.
"Petraeus and Crocker are capable men … they have been given an extraordinarily messy task," Obama said. "But they have not swayed me. Staying on the same path in the next four or five years will not yeild a different result."
Petraeus received a much warmer welcome from Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain.
"I, too, have been made sick at heart by the terrible price we've paid for nearly four years of mismanaged war," said the Arizona Senator. However McCain argued leaving Iraq would create a "terrorism sanctuary in the heart of the middle east."
"I believe we cannot choose to lose in Iraq. And I will do everything in my power to see that our commanders in Iraq have the time and support they request to win this war," he said.
When Democratic Senator Robert Menendez asked Petraeus how much longer U.S. troops would be in Iraq, the general refused to answer, saying it would be a "disservice" to the troops.
"I'm as frustrated in the situation as anybody else. It's going on three years living in the situation after a year in Bosnia," Petraeus said, referring to his own deployment.
ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf and Matt Jaffe contributed to this report.
September 11, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (240)
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After they grill a sycophantic general who gets his talking points from the whitewash house, they can go grill a steak and pat each other on the backs at the infinite war they created. Ask him about a mission and see if he coughs before answering.
Posted by: daddy | Sep 11, 2007 11:45:03 AM
These politicians are clueless and Petraeus just amplifies how uninformed they really are. I would advise Biden to shut up and listen.
Posted by: Ryan | Sep 11, 2007 11:47:15 AM
What a Joke of a report by ABC: Fair and balenced as a sea saw with a sumo on one end. What are we talking about? A bunch of stuffed suits comitting treason in the face of a lethal enemy. Drudge shouldn't have bothered.
Posted by: Andrew | Sep 11, 2007 11:51:40 AM
with the Dems attitude, Asia would be controlled by the Japanese...
Posted by: Daveyboy | Sep 11, 2007 11:58:06 AM
Biden is and has always been a bozo.
Posted by: John Shackelford | Sep 11, 2007 12:08:10 PM
Petraeus was also blasted by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Democratic presidential candidate, who implored the general to end the President's military surge strategy.
Senator, you are not fit to carry the general's bags. What is it about the Roman Senate that makes these fools think they are so high and mighty? I am talking both sides of the aisle. We should make you people wear robes and wigs, maybe then your image will match your attitudes.
Posted by: Drommm | Sep 11, 2007 12:13:10 PM
Likely Senator Question: "Umm, do you actually expect us to believe any of this?"
Posted by: Mark Johnson | Sep 11, 2007 12:15:52 PM
Strange. I watched the hearings. I actually heard positive comments about the reports. Are you sure your reporters were there??? Because they obviously missed some key testimony.
Posted by: Marine | Sep 11, 2007 12:17:40 PM
The reporting criteria was modified so things wouldn't sound as bad . . .
Posted by: osipov | Sep 11, 2007 12:20:12 PM
Come on folks, check out Biden's Bio,he had WAR101 during his stay at Syracuse. What does a graduate from West Point with thirty years in the field know!!!
All those years Joe put in serving his country in the MILITARY should count for something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: wildbill | Sep 11, 2007 12:21:46 PM
I really wish that we could pull all of our troops out immediately, just to show the left how wrong they really are with there policy decisions. How would they ever explain themselves out of that tragedy?
Posted by: Lee | Sep 11, 2007 12:21:52 PM
The general is a soldier doing his job and doing it well. Senator Biden is an embarrasment. Only people who hate the military could enjoy this.
Posted by: Elery | Sep 11, 2007 12:23:21 PM
The Senator's are right. What are we fighting for? What is our strategic plan? Is 5 more years, 600 billion, 4000+dead, 20,000+ wounded worth.....what exactly? Cheap gas for your suv? stop AQ? Their in Afganistan, Pakistan and Saudia Arabia. Where the real war is...
Posted by: futureshock | Sep 11, 2007 12:25:18 PM
The posts here show basically why the military uses poor folks with the dream of education after they serve, to prop them up and make them look good. No use getting an educated person in the military frontline, that is held for the leaders only, like BETRAYUS...
Posted by: daddy | Sep 11, 2007 12:25:35 PM
So how did the General respond? Or is the only point of this article to advance the blowhard talking points of grandstanding senators?
Posted by: Jimmy | Sep 11, 2007 12:26:55 PM
Hey Brian,
When are you going to do your "investigation" on Hillary's bribs.. I mean donations?? I'm still waiting on that one??? HMMMMM mmmmmm when I wonder.
Gutless wonder! Democratic Liberal Hack. Treasonist Loser!
Posted by: r | Sep 11, 2007 12:27:39 PM
Forget the Iraqi government...When are we going to withdraw support to the dysfunctional US Congress?!
They are failing to meet any of their benchmarks. The Senate has passed 0 of 12 appropriations bills necessary to keep USG doors open come Oct. 1.
We must deliver a clear message that "The Free Ride is Over!"
Posted by: carl | Sep 11, 2007 12:27:52 PM
Leave it to the brilliance of MYSTICDON to conjure up the SPECTER of FASCISM these republicans thrive under. The neo-con swindlers know the chapter from MEIN Kampf about how you forget the intelligent people and go for the easily misled among them...Vini Vidi Vici...
Posted by: daddy | Sep 11, 2007 12:29:09 PM
I too would like to see a real investigation of the Clintons, especially the activities at Mena Airport where Poppy Bush was landing the dope. No, not his son. The drugs.
Posted by: tim osman | Sep 11, 2007 12:32:31 PM
All politics, Biden could care less what the general has to say. He has already made up his mind and he knows best. This is a great example of what is wrong in DC. All talk, All show, no listen and thinking allowed.
Posted by: dilbert | Sep 11, 2007 12:33:57 PM
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