Petraeus says US surge has 'not worked out'

 

08 September 2007 10:30

General David Petraeus, the commander of United States forces in Iraq, admitted on Friday that sending 30 000 more troops into the war zone in January had failed to yield the desired results. "It has not worked out as we had hoped," the general said.

The acknowledgement by Petraeus that the situation in Iraq is "exceedingly complex" and that progress had been "uneven" came on the eve of his testimony to Congress on the state of the war. He offered the assessment in a letter to US forces serving in Iraq that was obtained by the Washington Post.

The appearance by Petraeus, and Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador in Iraq, in front of Congress has been the subject of much anticipation, with a rebellious legislature and a war-weary US public demanding evidence that the Bush administration's strategy is working.

When Petraeus took up his command in February, the central rationale for the surge was that the deployment of an additional 30 000 US troops would give breathing space to the government of Nuri al-Maliki to draft legislation and embark on political reconciliation.

In his letter to the troops the general acknowledged that had not occurred. "Many of us had hoped this summer would be a time of tangible political progress at the national level," Petraeus wrote. "All participants, Iraqi and coalition alike, are dissatisfied by the halting progress on major legislative initiatives," he wrote.

The expressions of disappointment were a departure for Petraeus, who has been forceful in conveying what he sees are the success stories of the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq.

He continued to emphasise there had been isolated gains in Iraq, including what he called "local reconciliation", in the isolated pockets where tribal leaders had formed alliances against al-Qaeda....