Petraeus Outlines Troop Withdrawal Plans

Gen. David Petraeus, seated, left, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, seated, right, are surrounded by photographers as they wait to testify before the House Armed Services Committee, Monday, Sept. 10, 2007, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Gerald Herbert - AP)

Petraeus didn't say so, but Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the day's only other witness, strongly suggested that the administration's troop buildup had prevented a debacle.

Crocker said 2006 was a "bad year for Iraq. The country came close to unraveling politically, economically and in security terms. 2007 has brought improvement."

Petraeus is both the architect and the commander of last winter's change in strategy, and private Republican polls show him with greater public credibility that the president.

Majority Democrats returned from a summer vacation determined to call for a troop withdrawal deadline, and the administration has been laboring to prevent wholesale Republican defections.

In long-awaited testimony, the commanding general of the war said last winter's buildup in U.S. troops had met its military objectives "in large measure."

As a result, "I believe that we will be able to reduce our forces to the pre-surge level ... by next summer without jeopardizing the security gains we have fought so hard to achieve."

Outside the hearing room, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he hoped Petraeus' testimony could lead to a bipartisan consensus.

That seemed unlikely.

"This is simply unacceptable," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a written statement. Inside the hearing, Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida told Petraeus that despite his assessment, most independent experts say Bush's so-called surge in troop strength has failed.

Criticized in advance by some opponents of the war, the general went out of his way to proclaim his independence. "I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by nor shared with anyone in the Pentagon, the White House or the Congress," he said.

Petraeus said the withdrawal of the Marine unit would be followed in mid-December with the departure of an Army brigade numbering 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers.

After that, another four brigades would be withdrawn by July 2008, he said. That would leave the United States with about 130,000-135,000 troops in Iraq, although Petraeus was not precise about whether some of the several thousand support troops sent along with the extra combat forces would remain after July. A few thousand additional military police, for example, were sent to deal with extra detainees.