By Ken Fireman and Janine Zacharia
Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- General David Petraeus's four-star credibility has bought President George W. Bush more time to pursue his military offensive in Iraq.
The testimony yesterday of the U.S. commander in Iraq, along with that of U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, resonated with the two groups of lawmakers whose support Bush needs to keep his strategy going: wavering Republicans and a small band of supportive Democrats.
Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia, who last month called on Bush to begin withdrawing some troops by the end of the year, called Petraeus's testimony ``powerful, compelling and credible.'' Warner is a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Representative Jim Marshall of Georgia, one of 10 House Democrats to vote in July against setting a timeline for withdrawal, called Petraeus's testimony ``powerful and persuasive.'' And Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, also said after the testimony that he remained opposed to a congressionally mandated pullout.
Anti-war critics are zeroing in on Petraeus's credibility, well aware of its potency as a political weapon. They sought to debunk it as they questioned his assessments that violence in Iraq was falling and Iraqi security forces were growing more competent.
`Washington Clock'
Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts said the general's testimony was a ``Petraeus village'' that was ``just a façade to hide from view the continuing failure of the Bush administration's strategy.''
Markey said Petraeus, 54, ``may be delivering too much White House spin in hopes of adding more time to what he calls the `Washington clock.'''
Some war opponents recalled that Petraeus had made such statements before: in an article in the Washington Post that was published less than six weeks before the 2004 presidential election. They said Petraeus's assertion in the article that Iraqi forces were making ``tangible progress'' proved factually wrong and had improperly boosted Bush's re-election campaign.
``I never saw a military field commander get so involved so close to an election,'' said Lawrence Korb, an assistant defense secretary from 1981 to 1985 who is now an analyst at Washington's Center for American Progress, an opponent of the military buildup and an adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
``Since he's so closely identified with this strategy, since he helped to conceive it, it's hard for him to be objective,'' said Korb of Petraeus. ``Even if he were a saint, it would be very hard for him to be objective about this.''
Judgment Questioned
Representative Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, asked Petraeus why lawmakers should believe his current judgment given what he had said in 2004 and asked whether he would be ``saying the same thing three years from now?'' Petraeus replied that his 2004 assessment was accurate.
The hardest swipe at Petraeus was taken by the anti-Bush group MoveOn.org. In an advertisement in the New York Times, the group cited the 2004 article and went on to accuse Petraeus of ``cooking the books for the White House.'' It added, ``General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us.''
Republican lawmakers and the White House denounced the challenges to Petraeus's credibility.
``I resent the comments of those who have sat comfortably in their air-conditioned offices thousands of miles away from the firefights and the roadside bombs and tried their Washington best in recent days to impugn the general's good name,'' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a floor speech yesterday.
Planned Pullout
In his testimony, Petraeus said the number of U.S. troops in Iraq could be cut by mid-2008 to about 130,000 from its current 168,000. That would take the troop level back to where it was before Bush ordered a military buildup in January. The general said it was premature to predict whether any deeper reductions could be made.
Petraeus said some drawdowns could begin this month, starting with a Marine expeditionary unit, and that an Army combat brigade could be pulled back in mid-December.
Both he and Crocker, 58, warned that a hasty withdrawal would be perilous. They said it would short-circuit efforts to create political stability, risk triggering full-blown civil war, erode security gains made during the buildup and open the door for Iran to gain even more influence in Iraq.
``The Iranian president has already announced that Iran will fill any vacuum in Iraq,'' Crocker told the congressional hearing. Terrorists could gain safe havens for attacks, he said.
Gains Cited
Petraeus said the military objectives of the buildup ``are in large measure being met.'' Civilian deaths have declined, he said, ``Iraqi security forces have also continued to grow and to shoulder more of the load'' and al-Qaeda terrorists are coming under pressure.
The willingness of Sunni tribes in Anbar province to fight al-Qaeda along with U.S. forces is spreading elsewhere, Petraeus said. Still, Petraeus noted that progress has been ``uneven'' throughout the country and the number of civilian deaths remains ``too high.''
Petraeus's assessment that violence in Iraq has fallen since the U.S. buildup was questioned last week by Congress's investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office. Its study found the average number of daily attacks against civilians had remained about the same during the past six months.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ken Fireman in Washington at kfireman1@bloomberg.net Janine Zacharia in Washington at jzacharia@bloomberg.net
Source : www.bloomberg.com
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