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WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Commander Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker testified yesterday in a joint hearing of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees.
U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, participated in yesterday's hearing.
"What this was deja vu all over again," he said last night of the six hours of testimony from Petraeus and Crocker.
Delahunt pointed to an op-ed piece Petraeus wrote for The Washington Post in 2004.
"If you read it, you'll read exactly what we heard today, only three years later - 'we're turning in the right direction; the Iraqi army and security forces are in the game.' The reality is totally to the contrary," Delahunt said.
Yesterday's hearing provides more fodder for debate, a process ncessary for "us to scrutinize all the information, so we can make a decision (about the war) in the best interests of the American people, in the best interest of the American economy and in the best interest of the American soldier," Delahunt said. "The challenge now is in the political and diplomatic solution, not the military."
Petraeus and Crocker are scheduled to testify today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee on which Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., serves.
In anticipation of that testimony, Kennedy said he did not expect any surprises.
"We have to really see where we are today: 4,000 Americans that have been killed, 30,000 wounded, 100,000 Iraqis that have either been killed or wounded," he said.
"Three million Iraqis have been made homeless in that country. Half a trillion dollars been expended going up to a trillion dollars. An Army that is almost broken, accoridng to members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Osama bin Laden is on the loose. Now that is where we are," he said in a statement issued by his office following an appearance on teh CBS news show "Face the Nation" Sunday.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.,said yesterday:
"It spoke volumes today when General Petraeus said the Iraqi politicians have been sitting on their thumbs while American soldiers sweated it out all summer. Nothing today suggested that President Bush's eight months of escalation have done anything to achieve political progress in a deadly civil war.
"The three recent independent reports - from the (Government Accountability) Office, the National Intelligence Estimate and the General Jones Commission - all say the opposite.
I am looking forward to hearing from both of these public servants tomorrow during the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee hearing."
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