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May 17, 2008 12:49:56 AM CDT

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Petraeus: Iraq Has Stepped Up; Gains Still Fragile  

Posted Apr 8, 08 9:21 AM CDT in US    Most Covered

(newser) – Iraq's security has greatly improved since September, Gen. David Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee today, thanks largely to Iraqis themselves. “Iraq has also conducted a surge,” Petraeus said, pointing to the improved Iraqi army and the contribution of Sunni Awakening groups. But he warned that those gains were “fragile and reversible,” and urged a pause in troop reductions after the surge drawdown ends in July.

On the political front, ambassador Ryan Crocker said progress “is uneven and often frustratingly slow, but there is progress.”  But he, too, called it “fragile and reversible.”  He advocated a pact for bilateral relations between the US and Iraq, but stressed that the agreement would “expressly foreswear” permanent bases, and wouldn’t tie the next president’s hands. “Almost everything about Iraq is hard,” Crocker said. “But hard does not mean hopeless.”

Source Associated Press

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Petraeus: Iraq Has Stepped Up; Gains Still Fragile
John McCain, delivers a speech at the National World War I Museum in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Petraeus: Iraq Has Stepped Up; Gains Still Fragile
United States Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus pauses before speaking during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, in this Oct. 8, 2004 file photo.   (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)
Petraeus: Iraq Has Stepped Up; Gains Still Fragile
Gen. David Petraeus testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington in this Sept. 11, 2007 file photo. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker will testify before Congress this week.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
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Iraq  • John McCain  • David Petraeus  • Ryan Crocker  • testimony  • Senate Armed Services Committee  • Sunni Awakening


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