The Iraq Report

Nellie Gonzalez Cutler

For two tense days, the top U.S. general in Iraq and the U.S. ambassador to the country fielded tough questions from members of Congress. On September 10, General David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker gave a progress report on the Iraq war to the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives. The next day, Petraeus and Crocker faced two Senate committees.

"Are we going to continue to invest blood and treasure at the same rate we're doing now? For what?" asked Chuck Hagel, a Republican senator from Nebraska.

In measured tones, Petraeus and Crocker told Congress that there had been some progress in the war. Anbar province and Baghdad, Iraq's capital, are more secure. But daily acts of violence continue throughout the country. "I am not a pessimist or an optimist about Iraq," said Petraeus. "I am a realist, and Iraq is hard."

In March 2003, the United States invaded Iraq. The mission: Remove Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, from power and destroy the deadly weapons that U.S. leaders believed he had acquired. Hussein was captured, put on trial and executed. But large stockpiles of extremely dangerous weapons were never found.

Since the invasion, Iraqis have voted in free elections. Still, differences between ethnic and religious groups have torn the country apart. Because Iraq lacks strong leadership, extremists have pushed the country toward civil war.

U.S. troops are caught in the crossfire. More than 3,700 members of the U.S. armed forces have died in the war.

President George W. Bush was expected to announce last Thursday that he would back the recommendations of his top general and diplomat in Iraq. By August, 30,000 troops are to be withdrawn from Iraq, bringing the number of forces stationed there down to 130,000.

In a radio address on September 8, Bush promised to "lay out a vision for future involvement in Iraq." That will not be an easy task. As General Petraeus warned Congress, when it comes to Iraq, "projecting too far into the future can be misleading and even hazardous."