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The last time General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker reported to Congress on the state of the Iraq war, "benchmarks" were all the rage. Congress had established 18 criteria in early 2007 both to pressure the Iraqis and to keep score on their progress. And in September, Congress faulted the Iraqi government for failing to meet many of those measures. Concocting a checklist of laws and actions that would lead to national reconciliation in Iraq was always a fool's errand and misunderstood the complexity of the situation. But having laid down this marker, Congress would want to hear an...

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government has dismissed about 1,300 soldiers and policemen who deserted or refused to fight during last month's offensive against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in Basra, officials said Sunday. Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said 921 police and soldiers were fired in Basra. They included 37 senior police officers ranging in rank from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general. The others were dismissed in Kut, one of the Shiite cities where the fight had spread. Last month, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the security forces to confront armed groups in Basra, Iraq's second largest city....

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — An Iraqi Police-led operation in An Numaniyah sent a message to criminals in the city - Iraqi Security Forces are in control. More than 300 IP, Iraqi Army and Coalition forces deployed to An Numaniyah to conduct checkpoint operations in a joint effort April 7. Dubbed Operation Crystal Springs, the mission also provided ISF and Coalition leadership the opportunity to engage with local government officials and sheikhs. “It was an operation that was planned by the Iraqi Police, supported by the Iraqi Army and the Coalition forces,” said Capt. Eric Wigley, commander of the 511th...

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2008 – Sharply decreased violence in Iraq has set the stage for the departure of the remaining surge forces by the end of July, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee here today. Violence in Iraq “has declined dramatically since this time last year,” Gates told committee members. “In addition to the drop in U.S. casualties, we have seen a dramatic and encouraging decline in the loss of Iraqi civilians.” Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were on Capitol Hill to update legislators on...

Today the President met with General David Petraeus, Commander of the Multi-National Force-Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker at the White House. The President also delivered a speech on the Iraq War in the Cross Hall of the White House. Fact Sheet: The Way Forward in Iraq Later in the day the President departed from the White House to spend the weekend in Crawford.Pray for President Bush -- Day 2765 Today Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill. The...

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2008 – The top U.S. military commander in Iraq presented Congress a comprehensive Iraq progress update in a grueling two days that comprised nearly 20 hours of testimony. "To be candid, we’re trying to get through this week,” said U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus. But keeping Washington officials informed and discussing critical issues with Iraqi leaders on a daily basis is standard for Petraeus, who answered wide-ranging questions from reporters today here at the news conference at the Freedom Forum’s Newseum. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq, described the flux...

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2008 – The efforts of U.S. and Iraqi surge forces have boosted security in Iraq, but those gains are uneven and subject to reversal, the top U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Iraq testified before the House Armed Services Committee here today. “There has been significant, but uneven, security progress in Iraq,” Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, told panel members. “Levels of violence and civilian deaths have been reduced substantially,” Petraeus pointed out, noting that al-Qaida in Iraq and other extremists “have been dealt serious blows” by surge-fortified U.S. and Iraqi security...

As we mark the fifth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, it is important to reflect on the journey we have embarked upon. Liberation offered us the opportunity to construct a new state, based on the rule of law and democratic principles. Unlike in the past, this Iraq would acknowledge and build upon its diverse ethnic and religious identities. That promise has not yet been fulfilled. Mistakes have been made, and few Iraqis doubt that political and economic reconstruction could have been handled better. Yet, against all odds, Iraq has closed its fifth year of freedom with tangible...

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2008 – Last year’s surge of U.S. troops into Iraq has helped tamp down violence and improve security there, but the situation remains fragile, the top U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Iraq testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee here today. Although Iraq “obviously remains a violent country, we do see progress in the security arena,” Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, told committee members. Petraeus told the committee that he has recommended a 45-day evaluation of the security situation in Iraq after the surge forces have redeployed before decisions are made...

As General David Petraeus briefs Congress this week on Iraq, it's clear his surge has achieved remarkable results. The most crucial is that the U.S. can no longer be defeated militarily in Iraq, which could not be said a year ago. The question now is whether Washington will squander these gains by withdrawing so quickly that we could still lose politically.Sixteen months after President Bush ordered the change in strategy, the surge has earned a place among the most important counteroffensives in U.S. military annals. When it began, al Qaeda dominated large swaths of central Iraq, Baghdad was a killing...

Didn't see one and we need one.

“This is my hardest deployment,” Marine Sergeant Cooley said as he unfastened his helmet and tossed it onto his bed. “We weren't trained for this kind of thing.” He's been shot at with bullets and mortars, and he's endured IED attacks on his Humvee, but post-war Fallujah is more difficult and more stressful than combat. He isn't unusual for saying so. Many Marines I spoke to in and around the Fallujah area said something similar. “We're trained as infantrymen,” Captain Stewart Glenn said. “But here we are doing civil administration and trying to get the milk factory up and running.”...

Congressional Democrats are warning U.S. Iraq commander General David Petraeus, and the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, not to attempt to minimize the seriousness of the situation in Iraq when they testify to Congress next week. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill. A few days before General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker appear before House and Senate committees to deliver their latest update on Iraq, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi makes clear what she hopes they will not say. In a news conference together with the chairmen of the House committees on Armed Services and Foreign Affairs, she refers to the recent...

ASSRIYA — The Soldiers of Battery A, 1st Battalion, 143rd Field Artillery, a California National Guard unit attached to the 1103rd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 1st Sustainment Brigade, spend most of their nights conducting convoy security missions. Although they have a job that requires them to be nocturnal, a few of the Soldiers have chosen to use their daylight hours to work in a village located outside of Camp Taji. Since February, Soldiers of 2nd Platoon, Battery A, 1st Bn., 143rd FA, use their personal time between missions to deliver supplies and make repairs to schools in the village of...

WASHINGTON - A new classified intelligence assessment on Iraq says there has been significant progress in security since the last assessment was delivered in August, a senior military official said. In most ways the new National Intelligence Estimate hews closely to the one delivered nine months ago. That document spoke of security gains since the increase in troop levels began in January 2007, the continued high rate of violence and uneven progress on the part of Iraqi security forces. "It does not differ significantly from August's NIE," a congressional official said in describing the document. The officials spoke on condition...

WASHINGTON - A new classified intelligence assessment on Iraq says there has been significant progress in security since the last assessment was delivered in August, a senior military official said. In most ways the new National Intelligence Estimate hews closely to the one delivered nine months ago. That document spoke of security gains since the increase in troop levels began in January 2007, the continued high rate of violence and uneven progress on the part of Iraqi security forces. "It does not differ significantly from August's NIE," a congressional official said in describing the document. The officials spoke on condition...

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2008 – Building an Iraqi police force is an enormous challenge, but the coalition-and-Iraqi team working to do so is making progress, a senior U.S. Army officer working with Iraq’s Interior Ministry said today. Maj. Gen. Michael D. Jones, director general for interior affairs in Baghdad, said in an interview today that the Iraqi-led, Iraqi-planned operations in Basra pointed to both the successes and the setbacks in training the police. The sheer size of the training challenge is daunting, he said. The Iraqi police forces have grown 400 percent since 2003. If the U.S. Army had undergone...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Policemen from 3rd Brigade, 1st National Police Division, led by Col. Emad, organized and executed a clearing operation March 29 in Jisr Diyala. With assistance from 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team’s National Police Transition Team; the Jisr Diyala Iraqi Police; and local members of the Sons of Iraq, the 3/1 NP detained four criminals and recovered two rocket-propelled grenade launchers, five RPG warheads, 37 AK-47 assault rifles and 18 magazines. “This was a planned operation that showed the NP re-establishing security in Jisr Diyala and the local government supporting security,”...

S THE REDUCTION IN violence in Iraq has become incontestable (the insistence of early critics that no such reduction was possible notwithstanding), war opponents have fallen back on their next line of defense--that the military progress has not been matched by the political progress it was supposed to enable. This talking point, however, is also outdated and invalid. The Bush administration, commanders and ambassadors in the field, and supporters of the effort to win in Iraq have long pointed to evidence of grassroots reconciliation and political progress. This evidence is growing and the importance of these developments is becoming increasingly...

Looking at the President's Assessment of the Iraq Campaign By Walid Phares April 1, 2008 President Bush's March 27 assessment of the state of the war in Iraq raised important strategic assertions that warrant greater attention from the public and the defense and national security sectors. The principles announced by the president with regard to the measurement of success and the risks of failure on the Iraqi battlefield constitute a series of components of what I would coin as the next stage in the confrontation against the forces of terror in the region. The surge's success The 2007-2008 military surge...