Right Wing Lunatic: Iraq 'surge' working, Petraeus tells Congress

Monday, September 10, 2007

Iraq 'surge' working, Petraeus tells Congress - CNN.com

Wow, that certainly isn't going to jive with anti-war Democrats.

The troops "surge" in Iraq is improving the security situation in the country, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told Congress on Monday.

Gen. David Petraeus arrives for testimony to Congress on Monday.

He said U.S. forces could be reduced to pre-surge levels by next summer.

Petraeus said he has recommended the withdrawal of a Marine expeditionary unit later this month and a brigade combat team in December, plus the "reduction of eight further brigade teams and the battalion combats in 2008 until we reach the pre-surge levels of 15 brigade combat teams by mid-July 2008."

Responding to pre-hearing criticism that he would be repeating the Bush administration line on Iraq, Petraeus in his opening statement said the testimony was his alone.

Petraeus said coalition forces had seen good success against al Qaeda in Iraq, knocking it "off-balance" and pursuing its leaders relentlessly. Watch the hearing live

The general said that tribes and local citizens have rejected al Qaeda and other insurgents, especially in the volatile Anbar province.

The general called this the "most significant development in the past six months."

Despite successes, "the level of civilian deaths is still too high," Petraeus said.

Before Petraeus began to testify, the head of the House Armed Services Committee challenged Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to convince him that the war effort in Iraq is worth continuing.

Basically, he's saying that some soldiers will be home by Christmas. He's also saying that we should be back to "pre surge" levels in less than 9 months. What's not said in the article, but I watched on the video, was that if we see the continued trend, we'll be bringing our soldiers home after July 2008. Petraeus also said that to predict when troops should come home past that wouldn't work because of previous attempts at that is simple naive.

Hell, even DailyKos is stunned. Here's his whole take on the report:

Petraeus blabbing:

We won! Therefore, our troops need to stay there forever.

Or something like that.