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Midday Open Thread: Candidates Have Opportunity to Question Petraeus |
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Today, General David Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker are delivering back-to-back testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and have already called for a suspension of troop withdrawal. Importantly, John McCain and Hillary Clinton sit on the Armed Services Committee and will be present for the first hearing, while Barack Obama sits on Foreign Relations and will be present for the second hearing. From the NY Times:
Politically, Mr. McCain risks looking like an eager cheerleader if he heaps too many accolades on General Petraeus. The senator’s advisers say he will also question the general closely about the recent assault against Shiite militias in Basra, when more than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers refused to fight or abandoned their posts.
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama will probably deploy a tougher line of questioning of General Petraeus, given how their views of Iraq differ from Mr. McCain’s. They may also cite a report written by alumni of the Iraq Study Group, released on Sunday, that found some improvements in the country but came to a bleak conclusion. …
(But Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, who have called for troop withdrawals, are not likely to cite the part of the report that concludes that a rapid reduction in United States forces could lead to “complete failure of the Iraqi state, massive chaos and even genocide.â€)
Call me demanding, but I certainly hope Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton will consider citing the part of the report that concludes a rapid reduction in US forces could lead to “massive chaos” and “genocide.” As much as I share their view that US forces belong out of Iraq, I like my leaders to grasp the realities of a situation, rather than avoid them for political reasons. With the US’s top military and diplomatic officials in Iraq before them today, Senators Clinton and Obama’s most productive line of questioning would be one that tackles head on, rather than skirts, the possibility of a humanitarian disaster in the event of a pullout.
To anyone hoping to sit in the Oval Office and direct a withdrawal come January, that is the only responsible approach to today’s testimony. Let’s see how our candidates perform.
The NY Times is blogging the hearings here. Seminal readers, feel free to share your thoughts throughout the day…
Yes! Responsible withdrawal is the only option we should be discussing, and it is not as hard as it may seem. There is a third way between staying forever and pulling out amid disaster.