Reply #15: The Surge Must Go On, Petraeus To Tell Congress [View All]

[Purveyor]

Source: Guardian UK

The Bush administration's most senior advisers on Iraq, the commander of US forces, General David Petraeus, and the ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, will launch a new drive today to defer any exit of troops until April 2008 amid growing doubts about their credibility in Congress and among the public.
In two days of testimony before Congress, Gen Petraeus and Mr Crocker will make the case for the White House that America should maintain the current strategy and force levels in Iraq.

The appearance of Gen Petraeus has drawn comparisons with General William Westmoreland's bullish assessment in 1967 of progress in the Vietnam war, a note underlined by Democratic senators yesterday who said they doubted that the general's testimony would be free of influence from the Bush administration.

"I don't think General Petraeus has an independent view," Dianne Feinstein, a prominent Democratic senator from California, told Fox television.

Dick Durbin, the second ranking Democrat in the Senate, was even more blunt. He told reporters: "By carefully manipulating the statistics the Bush Petraeus report will try and persuade us that the strategy is working."



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2165946,00.html