Posted on 09/11/2007 7:50:10 AM PDT by SmithL
Washington -- The upbeat assessment Monday on the state of the war in Iraq by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker appeared to provide President Bush with the breathing space he needs to forestall major congressional defections from his war policy.
Although Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said gradual troop reductions could begin this month, it would not be until mid-July of next year that troop levels would drop from the current 168,000 to the levels they were before Bush announced the escalation last January that has sent 30,000 more soldiers to Iraq.
Political analysts had predicted for months that Republican congressional support for the war would crumble come fall, as the election season begins in earnest. Republican leaders themselves said last spring that the Petraeus report could prove pivotal - that some change on the ground would have to be evident by now.
Despite months of anticipation, the testimony by Petraeus on the U.S. troop surge is not the turning point everyone hoped for, reporting neither the success nor the failure that could decisively shift the U.S. military posture or war politics at home.
The testimony by Petraeus and Crocker before a joint hearing of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees - with just enough charts and statistics showing a decline in violence - appeared to be a successful plea for more time.
But for some, the charts also recalled the statistics and charts that a former defense secretary used three decades ago to mark tactical progress amid a strategic failure in Vietnam.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Medea Benjamin of San Francisco, leader of CodePink, is removed by Capitol police as she and other demonstrators, including Lydia Vickers of Tallahassee, Fla. (right), disrupt the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, who were discussing the future of the war.
Group of hysterical, juvenile, embittered old hags.
Funny, the Chronicle doesn’t even hide their leftiness any more.
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