Iraq war commander recommends troop pause

The top U.S. military commander in Iraq Tuesday told lawmakers he wants to halt any troop reductions in Iraq after July, arguing that withdrawing forces too rapidly could reverse the "fragile" successes achieved in the country in the last year.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, in his first of four congressional hearings this week, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he wants to begin a 45-day period of "consolidation and evaluation" after the last of the troops deployed for the so-called surge campaign leave Iraq in July.

"At the end of that period, we will commence a process of assessment to examine the conditions on the ground and, over time, determine when we can make recommendations for further reductions," Petraeus told the panel.

The general said he could not project how long any evaluation of possible troop drawdowns would take or how many U.S. forces would be needed in Iraq by the end of the year.

Several Democrats who have long argued that the significant commitment of U.S. forces takes the pressure off the nascent Iraqi government seized on Petraeus' inability to provide a more exact assessment of the United States' long-term presence in Iraq.

"That is a clear, open-ended pause," Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said of the general's plan. "It seems to me that what you've given your chain of command is a plan that has no end to it," Levin added.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a Democratic presidential candidate, questioned whether the conditions for reducing the U.S. military presence in Iraq are too vague.

"It's not a mathematical exercise," Petraeus responded. "There's not an equation" to determining U.S. presence in Iraq, he said. Petraeus argued that his strategy would provide ground commanders the needed flexibility "to preserve the still fragile security gains our troops have fought so hard and sacrificed so much to achieve."

Petraeus also cautioned against withdrawing forces too rapidly -- a move that he warned could jeopardize any progress achieved in the last year. Senate Armed Services ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who has repeatedly warned against an early withdraw from Iraq, also painted a bleak picture of the effects of ending the military campaign too soon.

"Should the United States instead choose to withdraw from Iraq before adequate security is established, we will exchange for this victory a defeat that is terrible and long lasting," he said. Levin was more skeptical of those successes, arguing that recent violence in Basra and Baghdad "raises questions" about the success of the surge.

"But more significantly, the purpose of the surge as announced by President Bush last year -- to give the Iraqi leaders breathing room to work out a settlement -- has not been achieved," Levin said. "This reality leads many of us to once again challenge President Bush's policies."

Levin also questioned the United States' continued investment in Iraq reconstruction. "The Iraqi government seems content to sit by, build up surpluses and let Americans reconstruct their country and foot the bill," Levin said.

Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the committee that Iraq is increasingly using its own resources to pay for projects, including $200 million for vocational training of residents who supported U.S. efforts to thwart al Qaeda in Anbar province. Petraeus stressed that Iraqis have assumed more responsibility for securing the country, with $8 billion from the central government to be spent on security this year and $11 billion next year.