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Petraeus grilled on Iraq troop drawdown

The U.S. troops sent to Iraq as part of the administration’s surge strategy will begin coming home because officials don’t want to keep soldiers deployed more than 15 months, the top U.S. general in Iraq said Tuesday.

But if the improved security in Iraq touted by Army Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker during hearings in Washington this week starts going southward, Petraeus broached the possibility that the U.S. could mine the National Guard and reserves for surge reinforcements.

Petraeus hopes that doesn’t happen. By about mid-March, he expects to make a recommendation on whether even further reductions in deployed forces are possible.

Petraeus announced Monday that if security conditions on the ground in Iraq continue to improve, 28,500 surge troops sent to Iraq this year could all be home by mid-July, leaving five brigade combat teams and combat support forces, roughly the pre-surge total of 130,000 troops, in place at that point.

But if Petraeus decides he has to maintain the bulk of the surge forces, he wouldn’t have many active-duty options given the acknowledged heavy strain on the Army, which carries the bulk of the ground combat mission in Iraq.

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday on the status of the Iraq war, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., asked Petraeus whether his Monday announcement wasn’t a foregone conclusion because officials want to hold the line at 15-month deployments — a tour length boosted from 12 months earlier this year.

Petraeus tacitly agreed and replied, “Except depending on what can be taken out of the Guard and reserves. Again, I don’t know what is available in the National Guard and the Reserves. ... Certainly, the active brigade combat teams [are] going to come out of [Iraq].”

Said Reed, “My sense is that the Reserve and National Guard forces are not available to replace [any surge forces].”

“I think that’s the case,” Petraeus said. “But again, I don’t know because I haven’t asked.” But with regard to active forces, he said earlier, “Unless things got completely out of control ... we would not even think of extending beyond 15 months.”

Petraeus said the planning to trim the force has begun. “What I want to do is to get as low as we can,” he said. “And I’ve already charged the chief of staff of the Multi-National Force to pull together the teams to start determining where we can achieve savings and combining functions of the two headquarters, logistics, a whole host of other areas.

“Wherever we can, we want to send folks home and not keep them over in Iraq.”

The Senate hearing was the second of the day for Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who completed a Washington marathon Tuesday evening: more than 10 hours of testimony in back-to-back Senate hearings on the heels of a 6 1/2-hour hearing before a joint House committee hearing Monday.

President Bush, who is expected to address the nation on Iraq later in the week, has essentially staked the future of the war on the long-awaited presentations, coming as the fiscal year draws to a close and Congress considers war funding measures.

Petraeus and Crocker rarely strayed from their well-practiced talking points Tuesday, whether responding to questions asked in support of Bush’s Iraq policy or on the worthiness of continuing the 4 1/2-year war.

“I’d suggest that the Iraqi political leadership is holding hostage American service men and women in Iraq,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. “If they are not going to move, if they are not going to make judgments, if they are not going to make a decision, what I hear from you is that the American commitment is going to be open-ended. It’s going to be open-ended into the future. And I’m not sure that the American people are willing to buy into that.”

Petraeus said he sees movement on the political front beyond what is apparent by Iraq’s inability to meet more than a few of its political, economic and security benchmarks, as measured by a recent Government Accountability Office report.

“The efforts that Prime Minister Maliki and other members of the leadership made in the course of the summer, that does give me some encouragement, both of their resolve and, to a certain degree, their ability to get things done,” he said.

Tough questions also came from the Republican side. “If, a year from now, the Iraqi government still has failed to achieve significant political progress, what do we do?” said moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “How long should we continue to commit American troops, American lives, American treasure, if the Iraqis fail to make political gains that everyone agrees is necessary to quell the sectarian violence?”

Said Petraeus, “Senator, if we arrived at that point a year from now, that is something I would have to think very, very, very hard about. And that is my honest answer to you right now. That would be a very, very difficult recommendation to make at that point in time.

“There clearly are limits to the blood and treasure that we can expand in an effort,” Petraeus said. “And I am keenly aware of that. And as I’ve mentioned a couple of times, that awareness did, in fact, contribute to these recommendations.”

Sen. Lindsay Graham made the case for continuing the Iraq war in even starker terms: with numbers.

Petraeus told Graham that between 60 and 90 U.S. troops are killed in action each month and close to 90 when all deaths are counted.

Graham, after noting that the U.S. spends about $9 billion each month in Iraq, asked Petraeus, “My question for you: Is it worth it to us?”

“Well, the national interests that we have in Iraq are substantial,” Petraeus said. “An Iraq that is stable and secure, that is not an al-Qaida sanctuary, is not in the grip of Iranian-supported Shia militia, that is not a bigger humanitarian disaster, that is connected to the global economy, all of these are very important national interests.”

“Would that be a yes?” Graham asked.

“Yes, sir. Sorry,” Petraeus said.

“So you’re saying to the Congress that you know that at least 60 soldiers, airmen and Marines are likely to be killed every month from now to July, that we’re going to spend $9 billion a month of American taxpayer dollars, and when it’s all said and done, we’ll still have 100,000 people there, you believe it’s worth it in terms of our national security interests to pay that price?”

“Sir, I wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t have made the recommendations that I have made if I did not believe that,” Petraeus said.

Related reading:

• Iraq ‘inching’ ahead, Congress told

• Officials: Bush will adopt troop withdrawal

• Analysis: Combat role not shrinking with force

• Incendiary ad about Petraeus infuriates GOP

• Petraeus: 28,500 troops to leave Iraq by July

• Read Petraeus’ report to Congress

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