NYT: As a Report Draws Near, Democrats Ready a Stance
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: September 8, 2007
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 — With Gen. David H. Petraeus set to testify before Congress on Monday about the status of the Iraq war, leading Democrats in the House and the Senate maneuvered Friday to portray his report as being controlled by the White House, while insisting that they did not doubt the general’s integrity. “I have every belief that this good man, General Petraeus, will give us what he feels is the right thing to do in this report, that is now not his report,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader. “It’s President Bush’s report. President Bush took final ownership of this when he landed in Anbar Province just a few days ago.”
On the House floor, Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said, “Instead of a new strategy for Iraq, the Bush administration is cherry-picking the data to support their political objectives, and preparing a report that will offer another defense of the president’s strategy.”
The White House clearly wants General Petraeus, the top American military commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador to Iraq, who will testify with him on Capitol Hill, to be seen as independent — a professional soldier and field commander accompanied by a professional diplomat. But that effort seemed to be undercut Thursday when White House officials disclosed that General Petraeus had told Mr. Bush that he would be willing to withdraw about 4,000 troops in January as a symbolic gesture. Some lawmakers seemed unhappy to be learning of the general’s recommendations before his appearance. And Democrats reacted tepidly to that proposal on Friday, saying they would continue to push for a major shift in war strategy.
“We have heard some things today, that they may have a small recommendation to bring home a couple thousand troops,” Senator Reid said, noting that Congress had received several other assessments of the war, including one by the Government Accountability Office and another by a commission led by a retired Marine general, James L. Jones. “The G.A.O. report, the Jones report, the Bush report which Petraeus will report on sometime next week — it’s very clear that every one of those reports, every one of them without exception, does not accomplish what the president promised the surge would do, and that is bring about political stability in Iraq,” Senator Reid said.
“But if you look on the ground in Iraq,” he continued, “we’re still losing troops; today, seven. I have to go make three calls back to people in Nevada, this afternoon, of families who have lost loved ones in Iraq. “So if you look on the ground, you find the war is still an intractable civil war. You find that the war is now costing us $3 billion a week. The wounded and maimed are going up every day.”...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/washington/08cong.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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