Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/petraeus-touts-iraq-progress-discusses-troop-drawdown Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript In long-awaited testimony, Army Gen. David Petraeus told Congress Monday the troop increase in Iraq has largely met its goals and he recommended a reduction in troop levels, as Ambassador Ryan Crocker described improved security. The NewsHour recaps the hearing. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JUDY WOODRUFF: The long-awaited and much-anticipated report from the top American general in Iraq and his diplomatic counterpart got off to a contentious and confusing start.REP. IKE SKELTON (D), Missouri: We're going to have no disturbances in this room, and those that disturb are immediately asked to be escorted out. Do that right now. Out they go. JUDY WOODRUFF: That was just the first of several interruptions from antiwar protesters. Army General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testified before an unusual joint hearing of more than 100 members of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, testimony ordered by the Congress.Even before the witnesses spoke, the committee leaders reflected the partisan divide within Congress.REP. TOM LANTOS (D), California: The situation in Iraq cries out for a dramatic change of course. We need to get out of Iraq for that country's sake and for our own. It is time to go and to go now.REP. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN (R), Florida: Radical Islam sees Iraq as a central front in their war on freedom. The enemies of the emerging Iraqi representative government are the enemies of democracies everywhere. They are our enemies, as well.Do we fight and defeat this enemy? We must not fool ourselves into believing that we can accommodate our enemies and thereby secure their cooperation. Accommodation has been tried in the past with catastrophic consequences. JUDY WOODRUFF: And then the sound system broke down. REP. IKE SKELTON: I'm told that it will take five minutes to fix the microphone. We'll take a five-minute break. JUDY WOODRUFF: One hour into the hearing, the general and the ambassador finally got their turn to speak. Petraeus rebutted reports that the White House had drafted his testimony.GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, Commander, U.S. Forces in Iraq: At the outset, I would like to note that this is my testimony. Although I have briefed my assessment and recommendations to my chain of command, I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by nor shared with anyone in the Pentagon, the White House, or the Congress…