Petraeus's 'Special' Day

Dana Milbank
Washington Post

Well now, isn't that special?

In the beginning, the enemy in Iraq was Saddam Hussein and his Baath party loyalists. Then the main villain was al-Qaeda. But today, when Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker came to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee, they identified a new Enemy No. 1: "special groups."

It has a benign sound to it, like "special education," or "special guest," but make no mistake: "Unchecked, the special groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq," Petraeus testified this morning.

The "special groups," militias supported by Iran, merited only one mention when Petraeus and Crocker came before the committee last September, and that was a passing reference by Petraeus late in the hearing in response to a question. But the hearing this morning has turned into a special session for special-group alarms -- 16 mentions of the special groups so far -- as witnesses and senators worried that Iran's special proxies were creating an especially big problem.

"Iran has fueled the violence," Petraeus said, "in a particularly damaging way through its lethal support to the special groups." The recent "flare-up," Petraeus said, "highlighted the destructive role Iran has played in funding, training, arming and directing the so-called special groups." That's why, he continued, he has "focused on the special groups" and noted that Iranian leaders aren't living up to their promises "to stop their support for the special groups."

(Continued here.)