Joint Chiefs nominees see no limits on militants in Iraq
By David Stout
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
By David Stout
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush's choices to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior uniformed leadership of the armed services, said Tuesday that they were concerned about the seemingly inexhaustible numbers of Sunni Arab militant fighters in Iraq and about the Iraqi government's failure to take control of the country.
Admiral Michael Mullen, the nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and James Cartwright, the marine general nominated for vice chairman, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the United States could still win in Iraq - and that it cannot afford to lose there.
Perhaps the most sobering assessment of the campaign came during an exchange with committee members about the definition of victory in Iraq and the nature of the enemy.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, asked Cartwright if the recent increase in American troop strength in the country was "diminishing Al Qaeda's presence and viability in Iraq."
"We are challenging it," Cartwright replied. "And in that challenge, in areas we are diminishing it, for sure."
But the general went on: "They are resilient. They seem to have an unlimited pool from which to draw from if you're on the battlefield. In other words, as we defeat, others come in behind."
The increase in American strength, he said, "is challenging their ability to be resilient."
When Graham asked Mullen how he would define "winning in Iraq," the admiral said he worried about specific definitions. He said he hoped to see "a stable Iraq which can govern itself," reconcile the feuding factions within the country and not be a haven for terrorists.
Pressed to gauge the chances of an American victory, Mullen acknowledged that he was troubled about the Iraqis' failure to come together politically. "I would be concerned about whether we'd be winning or not," he conceded.
Cartwright said he thought victory was achievable. "It's going to be a challenge," he said.
A mid-September progress report from General David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, will offer a chance to determine whether the path "we're on is the right path or whether we want to make adjustments," he said.
The admiral said he saw the struggle in Iraq as one with global impact. Asked whether he believed that "this is a war really we can't afford to lose, when it's all said and done," as Graham put it, he replied, "Yes, sir."
The military leaders' testimony may have offered grist both for supporters and opponents of Bush's policy. The president himself has said that the war is one that must be won, not only for peace in the Middle East but for American security worldwide.
But Cartwright's comments about Sunni Arab militants' strength in Iraq may be seized upon by critics of the war, many of whom have said that Al Qaeda was not even present in Iraq before the American invasion of 2003 and that the invasion created an opportunity for terrorists.
Mullen, who would succeed General Peter Pace as Joint Chiefs chairman, and Cartwright appeared certain to win the committee's endorsement for confirmation by the full Senate. The panel's chairman, Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, who has been highly critical of the administration's Iraq policy, called the nominees "outstanding individuals with exceptional military backgrounds," and other committee members offered similar praise.
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