U.S. command nominee calls Iraq situation 'dire'

By Johanna Neuman and Julian Barnes
LA Times

WASHINGTON — Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, nominated by President Bush to replace Army Gen. George Casey as the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, testified before Congress today that "the situation in Iraq is dire.… But hard is not hopeless."

While Petraeus is expected to win Senate confirmation as commander of the multinational forces in Iraq, his appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee elicited anger about the president's proposal for a surge of additional U.S. troops.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said her opposition to the policy had nothing to do with Petraeus' skills but from "years of lost opportunity and failures of the Iraqis to step up and take charge."

Noting Petraeus' oversight of an Army manual on how to counter an insurgency, Clinton said that senators opposing the surge fear that his advice is not being followed. "You wrote the book, general, but the policy is not by the book. You're being asked to square the circle, to find a military solution to a political problem."

She said the recent penetration of a government compound in Karbala by insurgents dressed as U.S. troops was "scary" and evidence that the enemy is adapting. The incident led to the deaths of five U.S. soldiers planning security.

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