At Hearings, A Chance To Explain Iraq Views And Audition As Commander In Chief

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 9, 2008 By Elisabeth Bumiller
WASHINGTON — The war in Iraq collided with White House ambitions in hearing rooms on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as three would-be commanders in chief — Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain — swooped in from the campaign trail to question the top American commander in Baghdad, Gen. David H. Petraeus.
Their tempered performances seemed to reflect the political risks of appearing too easy or tough on General Petraeus in the klieg-light atmosphere of a Washington hearing room halfway through a presidential election.
Mr. McCain made a veiled attack on his two Democratic rivals, but only Mrs. Clinton responded.
For the most part, the daylong hearings were a fugue of caution as the three struck somber, respectful stances with General Petraeus in his appearances before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees alongside Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador to Baghdad. Although the candidates repeated their main arguments — Mr. McCain said there was significant progress in Iraq; Mrs. Clinton said there was not; Mr. Obama called the war a “massive strategic blunder” — none used the occasion to grandstand.
Mr. McCain, who has been under fire from Democrats for his unwavering support of the war, asked a series of skeptical questions, while Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama, whose calls for troop withdrawals have been criticized by Republicans as naïve, cross-examined General Petraeus in academic, lawyerly fashion.
Mr. Obama, who spoke the longest and latest of the three, said that the presence of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and increased Iranian influence in the country were a direct result of the decision to invade, but politely excused General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker from blame. “You are cleaning up the mess afterward,” he said.
Mr. Obama then danced with them around the question of what constituted success in Iraq. “I’m not suggesting that we yank all our troops out all the way, I’m trying to get to an endpoint,” Mr. Obama said, then suggested that the United States might define success downward toward a “messy, sloppy status quo.”
Mrs. Clinton never raised her voice or showed the passion she did at General Petraeus’s last Washington hearing, in September, when she told him that his Iraq report required “the willing suspension of disbelief.” The remark has since been hurled at her by her opponents.
“What conditions would have to exist for you to recommend to the president that the current strategy is not working?” Mrs. Clinton asked General Petraeus, with only a slight edge of exasperation in her voice. The conditions, she added, “are unclear, they lack specificity.”
General Petraeus, who at that point was more than three hours into the hearing, responded that “there has indeed been progress in the political arena,” and then said, in an elaborate answer that might not have satisfied Mrs. Clinton, “there’s even sort of a political-military calculus that you have to consider, again, in establishing where the conditions are met to make further reductions.”
Mr. McCain, whose seniority on the committee gave him the advantage of being the second to question the general, asked about the recent assault against Shiite militias in Basra, when some Iraqi forces refused to fight or fled their posts.
“What’s the lesson that we’re to draw from that, that 1,000 Iraqi Army and police deserted or underperformed?” Mr. McCain asked.
General Petraeus responded that the forces were new and that it was difficult for the Iraqi police to operate where there was “serious intimidation” of their families.
“Suffice it to say, it was a disappointment,” Mr. McCain replied.
Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton reserved their real fire for each other. Shortly after the hearing began, Mr. McCain was out of the gate with an opening statement calling on Americans to reject proposals for a “reckless and irresponsible withdrawal of our forces at the moment when they are succeeding.” Promising such a withdrawal, he said, “regardless of the consequences,” was “a failure of political and moral leadership.”
Mrs. Clinton, who has repeatedly called for troop withdrawals, fired back when her turn came three hours later, close to 12:30 p.m., but by then Mr. McCain had left.
“I just want to respond to some of the statements and suggestions that have been made leading up to this hearing, and even during it, that it is irresponsible or demonstrates a lack of leadership to advocate withdrawing troops from Iraq in a responsible and carefully planned withdrawal,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I fundamentally disagree. Rather, I think it could be fair to say that it might well be irresponsible to continue the policy that has not produced the results that have been promised time and time again.”
The two entered the room together, shortly before the 9:30 a.m. start of the Armed Services hearing. General Petraeus immediately jumped up to say hello to Mrs. Clinton. Despite some tough political talk from her on the morning news programs (she told MSNBC that General Petraeus did not have a “convincing argument” and said on ABC that “clearly the surge hasn’t worked”), she greeted him as an old friend. For several minutes, as photographers swarmed, Mrs. Clinton smiled and talked animatedly with General Petraeus, looking straight into his eyes and lightly touching his arm.
In another part of the hearing room, a group of senators — Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts; John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia; Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent of Connecticut; and Mr. McCain — were kibitzing. Eventually, General Petraeus made his way to greet them.
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain did not appear to make any major mistakes in the hearing, although Mr. McCain did seem to get momentarily tangled over Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
It happened just after Mr. McCain asked General Petraeus if he still viewed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a Sunni group, as a major threat, and elicited the response, “It is still a major threat, though it is certainly not as major a threat as it was, say, 15 months ago.”
Mr. McCain responded, “Certainly not an obscure sect of the Shiites over all ... .”
To which General Petraeus replied, “No.”
Mr. McCain continued, “Or the Sunnis or anybody else.”
Senator McCain was embarrassed last month when, on a trip to Jordan, he stated several times that the Iranians were training Iraqi Qaeda operatives in Iran and then sending them back into Iraq. After one of his traveling companions, Mr. Lieberman, corrected him, Mr. McCain explained that he had meant to say that the Iranians, who are Shiites, were training other extremists.
Michael Cooper and Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting.
 
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