'We can't have unconditional support here,' Coleman says

WASHINGTON - Sen. Norm Coleman pressed America's top leaders in Iraq on Tuesday to define a successful end to the nation's military involvement there.

"I'm a little frustrated as, what can we do? Where's the pressure that we can put on [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki] to do those things that ... aren't done?" Coleman asked. "We can't have unconditional support here. There's got to be conditions."

Coleman was among the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who questioned Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad. The two men earlier appeared before the Armed Services Committee.

Coleman expressed a mixture of support and frustration with political progress following the troop surge in Iraq. "The surge has been ... way beyond even my expectations," he said. "I had some concerns early on."

At the same time, Coleman sought more specificity from Petraeus on the conditions that would allow U.S. troops to pull out. "Assuming we're moving in that direction, what's then the best-case scenario to say now we set a timetable and tell the American public that we can step out, not in failure, but in achieving success?" he asked.

Petraeus said: "Given the enormous effort it's taken to achieve this progress, it has to do with conditions again. What we want to do is look at conditions and determine where it is that we can make reductions without taking undue risks."

In September, when Petraeus last briefed Congress, Coleman pressed him for a long-term timetable on troop reductions, saying Americans were seeking a "light at the end of the tunnel." But the senator has steadfastly opposed any specific troop withdrawal deadlines imposed by Congress.

Afterward, he said: "I want to have some leverage to force Maliki or somebody else to start doing the things at the national level that ... are necessary to provide the stability you need that would then allow us to step back. In order for us to step back, we need both, not just the military, but we need the political stability."

He also said: "I don't think we have been aggressive enough on pushing the Iraqis to pave their reconstruction."

For Coleman, facing a difficult reelection battle, political sensitivities are high. On Tuesday he was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, "How do we get out of this mess?" His office quickly complained to the Post that his words were taken out of context and produced a transcript showing that he had been paraphrasing a question posed by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

Minnesota's other senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, issued a statement Tuesday saying that "after more than five years in Iraq, it is time for the Iraqi government to take responsibility for the country's security and destiny. Any further delay in a responsible redeployment of U.S. combat troops from Iraq will only extend and deepen the Iraqis' dependence on the United States Armed Forces.

"I have long said that we must shift to the diplomatic and political solutions that are essential to building long-term stability and security -- understanding that troops will remain as Special Forces, to protect our embassies and to train Iraqi security forces."