Armed Services Hearing With Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker

April 9, 2008
Blog Post
The Armed Services Committee is currently hearing testimony on the status of the war and political developments in Iraq from General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Watch the hearing live via committee webcast on C Span.

Chairman Ike Skelton gives opening remarks:

Chairman Skelton: "Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and General Hayden, the Director of the CIA, have both said publicly that the next attack on our homeland will likely come from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where Osama bin Laden is hiding. Troops in Iraq, or those in units recovering from being in Iraq, cannot be sent to Afghanistan to hunt down bin Laden. Protecting this nation from direct attack is job one. Yet our allocation of forces does not match this imperative... Iraq is also preventing us from effectively preparing for the next conflict. We have had twelve military contingencies in the last 31 years, some of them major, and most of them unexpected. The Army would face a steep climb to try to respond to another contingency."

Chairman Ike Skelton questions the witnesses:

Chairman Skelton: "What leverage do you have on the Iraqi government to Iraqi government to take the training wheels off and get on with its task. We've been at this for years. How do you do that? General? Mister Ambassador?"

General Petraeus: "First of all, Mr. Chairman I would point out that they want to do that as much as we do. Indeed, they are under -- they put themselves under enormous personal pressure, and collective pressure, from various political elements in Iraq, to increasingly exercise their sovereignty. In fact that's exactly what Prime Minister Maliki did, of course, when he decided that as the Constitutional Commander in Chief of the armed forces of Iraq to deploy forces on short notice to Basra..."