Petraeus wants 6 more months

Last update: September 10, 2007 - 12:06 AM

In today's highly anticipated testimony on the Iraq war before Congress, Gen. David Petraeus' progress report is expected to include three main recommendations on how to proceed:

Send 4,000 home soon

Petraeus has informed President Bush that troop cuts may begin in mid-December, with the withdrawal of one combat brigade, about 4,000 troops. That's earlier than many experts had anticipated, but there's a catch.

Then wait six months

He will recommend that decisions on the contentious issue of reducing the main body of the U.S. force in Iraq be put off for six months. In effect, the much-awaited September debate over the war would become a prelude for another set of potentially difficult deliberations next year.

Cut more troops by July

He will suggest that by mid-July, the American force in Iraq might be down to 15 combat brigades, the force level before Bush's troop reinforcement plan.

NEW YORK TIMES

This week's schedule

Petraeus and U.S. Ambassaor to Iraq Ryan Crocker will testify today and Tuesday before four committees. They are expected to argue that the troop surge is beginning to succeed; that the central government in Baghdad has failed to meet political goals, but there are signs of progress at the local level, and that a too-hasty withdrawal would be catastrophic.

President Bush then plans to lay out his plans for Iraq in an address to the nation, probably Thursday night.

A general's fate

Gen. David Petraeus' appearance on Capitol Hill has historical echoes of two military leaders who had very different fates: Ulysses S. Grant of the Civil War and Gen. William Westmoreland of the Vietnam War. A8

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