General Is Greeted by Protesters
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON – General David Petraeus went before Congress today to deliver his long-awaited assessment of Iraq, greeted by Democrats who praised him while sharply criticizing the war he commands.
The four-star general sat a few feet away as Rep. Ike Skelton, Democrat of Missouri, described him as “almost certainly the right man for the job in Iraq,” but then added, “he’s the right person three years too late and 250,000 troops short.”
Rep. Tom Lantos, Democrat of California, hailed General Petraeus and a second witness, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, as “two of our nation’s most capable public servants.”
And yet, he quickly said, “military progress without political progress is meaningless. … We need to get out of Iraq, for that country’s sake and for our own.”
