Petraeus, Crocker Continue Iraq Updates in Front of Senate Panel

JIM LEHRER:

Day two of the general and the ambassador before the Congress. Judy Woodruff begins our coverage.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Following six-and-a-half hours of testimony before two House committees yesterday, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Army General David Petraeus were back for a full day of questioning before two Senate committees, beginning with Foreign Relations.

SEN. JOE BIDEN (D), Delaware: You're here today to give the American people a progress report on the war in Iraq and on the president's decision in January to surge more forces into Iraq.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Responding to an opening question from Committee Chairman Joe Biden, Crocker said he was unable to give a long-term projection on U.S. military involvement in Iraq.

RYAN CROCKER, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq: In terms of concrete things like force levels, as General Petraeus said, neither of us believe we can see beyond next summer.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd relayed a conversation he had with one of his constituents, a soldier sent to Iraq as part of the surge.

SEN. CHRIS DODD (D), Connecticut: I asked him about the surge and how it was working. He said to me, he said, "Senator, we'll spend a month, month-and-a-half to clean out an area." He said, "An hour-and-a-half" — and I'm quoting him exactly — "an hour-and-a-half after we leave" — it may be an exaggeration, obviously — "after we leave, things are right back where they were before."

He went on to say, "Look, the civilian population," and, again, I'm quoting him, he said, "They know where the IEDs are. They know where the ammo dumps are. They won't share that information with us here."

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, Commander, U.S. Forces in Iraq: There's 165,000 different views on the ground. And if you go to Anbar province right now, they feel as if they're in the loving arms of their Sunni-Arab citizens who shot at them, you know, six, eight months ago.

And it does change; there's no question about it. And you can walk around the map, and you could say looking at it, literally, "This is where they'll help you, this is where they won't." The fact is that we are getting a lot more help.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel followed.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), Nebraska: Are we going to continue to invest American blood and treasure at the same rate we're doing now? For what? The president said, "Let's buy time." Buy time? For what? Every report I've seen, and I assume both of you agree with this, there's been really very little, if any, political process that is the ultimate core issue, political reconciliation in Iraq.

RYAN CROCKER, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq: There is an enormous amount of dysfunctionality in Iraq; that is beyond question. The government in many respects is dysfunctional, and members of the government know it.

Iraq, in my judgment, almost completely unraveled in 2006 and the very beginning of 2007, as sectarian violence after February '06 just spiraled up. Under those conditions, it is extremely difficult, it is impossible to proceed with effective governance or an effective process of national reconciliation. It's just in the last couple of months that those levels of violence have come down in a measurable way.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL:

Ambassador and General, as much as you want to put a good picture on this — and that's partly, I understand, your job and I understand it's your responsibility. And I don't question you believe exactly what you've come before this committee to say. But I have to ask this question: Where is this going?

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS:

Senator, first of all, with respect — my responsibility, as I see it, is not to give a good picture. It's to give an accurate picture, as forthright a picture as I can provide. And that is what I've tried to do.