Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker spent Monday and Tuesday last week briefing Congress on developments in Iraq since the start of the surge. The hearings took place over two long days before four congressional committees. Members had the chance to ask questions, real and rhetorical, and to instruct Petraeus and Crocker on how things are going. Lots of questions and non-questions. Lots of answers—often to the same questions asked over and over.
Because most Americans have actual lives and cannot spend their days taking in multiple hearings—or don't have the stomach to watch some of their lawmakers in action—herewith is a rundown of the toughest of the tough (non)questions and the Petraeus-Crocker answers.
Question: The administration has sent you here to convince the members of these committees and Congress that victory is at hand. With all due respect, I don't buy it, general.
Petraeus: "I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by, nor shared with, anyone in the Pentagon, the White House or Congress."
Question: Nothing is getting better at all.
Petraeus: "As a bottom line up front, the military objectives of the surge are, in large measure, being met. In recent months ... coalition and Iraqi Security Forces have achieved progress in the security arena. Though the improvements have been uneven across Iraq, the overall number of security incidents in Iraq has declined in eight of the past 12 weeks, with the numbers of incidents in the last two weeks at the lowest levels seen since June 2006."
Question: The GAO's data show your data are wrong.
Petraeus: (In summary) the GAO stopped collecting data five weeks before we did. That explains any discrepancy.
Question: You keep arguing based on statistics. Didn't politics, not the surge, yield success in Anbar?
Petraeus: "The success in Anbar ... correctly is seen as a political success but it is a political success that is enabled by our forces. It would not have happened as quickly ... and I don't know if we could have capitalized on it without the surge."
Question: With all due respect, the surge has failed.
Petraeus: "It is possible to achieve our objectives in Iraq over time, although doing so will be neither quick nor easy."
Crocker: "I will not minimize the enormity of the challenges faced by Iraqis, nor the complexity of the situation. Yet at the same time ... it is possible for the United States to see its goals realized in Iraq."
Question: Isn't political reconciliation the only real solution in Iraq?
Petraeus and Crocker: Yes.
Question: And haven't Iraqis failed to achieve it?
Crocker: "Some of the more promising political developments ... are neither measured in benchmarks, nor visible to those far from Baghdad. We are seeing Iraqis come to terms with complex issues not by first providing a national framework but by tackling immediate problems. Without the proclamation of a general amnesty, we see amnesty being granted and de-Baathification reform in advance of national legislation. In both instances, the seeds of reconciliation are being planted."
Question: Why can't our troops just combat terrorists and train Iraqi forces?
Petraeus: "One may argue that the best way to speed the process in Iraq is to change the ... mission from one that emphasizes population security, counter-terrorism and transition, to one that is strictly focused on transition and counter-terrorism. Making that change now would ... be premature. We have learned before that there is a real danger in handing over tasks to the Iraqi Security Forces before their capacity and local conditions warrant."
Question: How many more names will we add to the future Iraq War Memorial before we admit it is time to leave?
Petraeus: "No one is more conscious of the loss of life than the commander of the forces. That is something I take and feel very deeply. And if I did not think that this was a hugely important endeavor, and if I did not think ... we could succeed, I would not have testified as I did to you all here today."
