ALISON STEWART, host:
For this edition of The Week In Iraq, we could look at the week on the ground. A lot did happen. Today, gunmen killed the brother-in-law of powerful Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, on his way home from Friday prayers. The U.S. military also announced 12 suspected insurgents were killed in Basra.
On Wednesday, al-Sadr called off a protest pegged to the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, but then threatened to end his ceasefire. And on Monday, four U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad. As all of this was happening, a half a world away in Washington, D.C., policy was being discussed and dispensed by lawmakers and military leaders. Here is The Week In Iraq, in their own words.
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STEWART: First, President Bush announcing yesterday shorter tours for U.S. troops shipping out to Iraq and Afghanistan after August 1st.
President GEORGE W. BUSH: To ease the burden on our troops and their families, I've directed the Secretary of Defense to reduce deployment lengths from 15 months to 12 months for all active Army soldiers deploying to the Central Command area of operations.
STEWART: As for soldiers already on the frontlines, Mr. Bush said a complete withdrawal of about 20,000 extra combat troops deployed during last year's surge will come home this July. But...
President BUSH: Beyond that, General Petraeus says he'll need time to consolidate his forces and assess how this reduced American presence will affect conditions on the ground before making measured recommendations on further reductions. And I've told him he'll have all the time he needs.
STEWART: Petraeus spent two days this week in front of congressional committees, by his side, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker. Both facing questions from senators and congressmen, three of whom hope to replace the current commander-in-chief. Here's a recap.
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General DAVID PETRAEUS (Commander General, U.S. Forces in Iraq): Since Ambassador Crocker and I appeared before you seven months ago, there has been significant, but uneven, security progress in Iraq. Since September, levels of violence and civilian deaths have been reduced substantially. Al-Qaeda Iraq and a number of other extremist elements have been dealt serious blows. The capabilities of Iraqi security force elements have grown, and there has been noteworthy involvement of local Iraqis and local security. Nonetheless, the situation in certain areas is still unsatisfactory and numerable challenges remain.
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Ambassador RYAN CROCKER (U.S. Ambassador to Iraq): While the job of bringing security to Iraq is not finished, we're no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success.
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Senator JOHN MCCAIN (Republican, Arizona): Our goal, my goal is an Iraq that no longer needs American troops. And I believe we can achieve that goal, perhaps sooner than many imagine. But I also believe that the withdrawal of our forces, regardless of the consequences, would constitute a failure of political and moral leadership.
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Senator HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (Democrat, New York): I just want to respond to some of the statements and suggestions that have been made leading up this hearing, and even during it, that it is irresponsible, or demonstrates a lack of leadership, to advocate to withdrawing troops from Iraq in a responsible and carefully-planned withdrawal.
I fundamentally disagree. Rather, I think that it could be fair to say that it might well be irresponsible to continue the policy that has not produced the results that have been promised time and time again.
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Senator CLINTON: I think it's time to begin an orderly process of withdrawing our troops, start rebuilding our military and focusing on the challenges posed by Afghanistan, the global terrorist groups and other problems that confront America.
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Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois): There is a bipartisan consensus that we have finite resources. Our military is over-stretched, and the Pentagon has acknowledged it. The amount of money that we're spending is hemorrhaging our budget. Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, I think, is feeling a lot more secure, as long as we're focused in Iraq and not on Afghanistan. When you have finite resources, you've got to define your goals tightly and modestly.
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Senator OBAMA: The problem I have is if the definition of success is so high, no traces of al-Qaeda, and no possibility of reconstitution, a highly effective Iraqi government, a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian, functioning democracy, then that portends the possibility of us staying for 20 or 30 years. And that, I think, is what everybody here on this committee's been trying to drive at, and we haven't been able to get as clear an answer as we'd like.
Ambassador CROCKER: And that's because, Senator, it is a - I mean, I don't like to sound like a broken record...
Senator OBAMA: I understand.
Ambassador CROCKER: But this is hard and this is complicated.
STEWART: Ambassador Ryan Crocker was the last speaker there. So how did this all go over? The editorial board of the Washington Times wrote that Petraeus and Crocker, quote, "did a superb job of outlining the progress made in Iraq so far, and the dire consequences of prematurely withdrawing troops from there.
"General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker made a powerful case that while the U.S. troop surge is responsible for a dramatic reduction in violence during the past year, progress remains fragile and Iran is doing all it can to subvert its western neighbor." Over at the Huffington Post, they called it "Deja Vu All Over Again." And that's The Week In Iraq. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
