September 11, 2007	Tuesday	Sha'aban 28, 1428

WASHINGTON, Sept 10: US Iraq commander General David Petraeus said on Monday the military goals of the Iraq troop surge strategy were being met, in crucial testimony to Congress at a momentous moment in the four-year war.

Petraeus admitted improvements in Iraq were uneven, but said it should be possible to reduce the 168,000 US troop presence in Iraq to pre-surge levels by ‘next summer’. “As a bottom line, up front the military objectives of the surge are in large measure being met,” Petraeus told a joint hearing of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees.

“I believe that we will be able to reduce our forces to the pre-surge level of Brigade Combat Teams by next summer without jeopardizing the security gains that we have fought so hard to achieve.” The talismanic four-star general had earlier sat poker faced in dress uniform in an ornate Capitol Hill office building, as Democrats told him the current strategy to surge an extra 28,500 troops into Iraq, was a failure and US troops should come home.

At least three anti-war protesters were ordered thrown out of the hearing room after heckling broke out before Petraeus started to speak.

The event then verged on farce as the general’s microphone failed and the hearing went into a five minute recess, further fraying already brittle tempers in the room, guarded by large numbers of Capitol police officers.

Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton said Petraeus, who entered the room to an explosion of flash-bulbs and cries from protesters of “Tell the truth, General,” was the right man for the job in Iraq.

“But he’s the right person three years too late and 250,000 troops short,” Skelton said.

As political tensions in Congress hit boiling point, Foreign Affairs committee chairman Tom Lantos told Petraeus he didn’t ‘buy’ claims that victory was at hand.

“The current escalation in our military presence in Iraq may have produced some tactical successes. But strategically, the escalation has failed,” he said accusing Iraqi leaders of squandering an opportunity for political reform.

“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.” Gray-haired Crocker, in a dark suit, sat motionless as Petraeus delivered his remarks, before a packed audience, some of whom had lined up for hours to get into to the most eagerly awaited political showpieces in years.

Pent-up political fury over the war spilled over even before Petraeus and Crocker appeared, with Republicans accusing Democrats of embracing ‘character assassination’ tactics designed to discredit the Generals’s testimony.

The flare-up was sparked by a full-page advertisement in the New York Times placed by anti-war liberal campaign group MoveOn.org, reading “General Petraeus or General Betray US? Cooking the Books for the White House.” White House spokesman Tony Snow called the advertisement ‘boorish and childish’. He also said the Crocker and Petraeus testimony had not been shaped by the White House.

House minority leader John Boehner led the Republican counter-attack in the Congress.

“Democratic leaders must make a choice today: either embrace the character assassination tactics MoveOn.org has levelled against the four-star general leading our troops in the fight against Al Qaeda, or denounce it as disgraceful,” he said.

Petraeus meanwhile got a boost from Baghdad, where Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told parliament violence had dropped 75 per cent in the restive provinces of Baghdad and Anbar under the surge.

“We have succeeded in preventing Iraq from sliding into a civil war in spite of all the destabilising actions by local and international groups,” Maliki said.

The general and ambassador were also due to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees on Tuesday.

Bush, bound by law to provide a report on the progress of the war in by Saturday, was expected to make a televised address to the American people later in the week.—AFP