Word: petraeus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...That's the view of General Petraeus... General Petraeus' strategy has succeeded. Senator Obama said it wouldn't, couldn't, and has denied that it has succeeded and we will be able to withdraw as we have in every time in history when counterinsurgency succeeds...
...When General Petraeus last came and spoke before the Senate, you laid out a pretty clear definition of what you saw as victory in Iraq. The government of Iraq has made clear in the last month or two that they might want a withdrawal before complete stability, before totally secure borders, before some of the completeness of victory as he described it then. Is there any change, do you think there is some wiggle room there? What you described with Petraeus was an end point that was rather complete, a peaceful, stable country...
Whether Sadr's apparent pressure move will work remains uncertain. But U.S. military officials are likely to take it seriously. The U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, has kept up a dialogue with key figures from Sadr's ranks, and U.S. officials in Baghdad have repeatedly spoken hopefully about Sadr's plans to transform his movement into more of a humanitarian organization. Even while Maliki's government clashed in the streets of southern Iraq and Baghdad with Sadr's fighters earlier this year, American officials did not call for Sadr's capture or destruction but were openly holding...
...roughly the next two months, meaning any big decisions by the Iraqi government are unlikely. In Washington, President Bush is eager to formalize a deal, which would not have to be approved by lawmakers unlike in Iraq. But any big decisions about troop levels will come after Petraeus makes his final recommendations on the U.S. military presence in September, shortly before he takes on a new job as head of the U.S. forces across the Middle East. That leaves American and Iraqi negotiators largely in limbo even as talks continue...
Obama's advisers, however, say polling is not a measure of the impact of a week in which Americans saw Obama taking a helicopter ride with David Petraeus, the commanding general in Iraq, and sinking a three-pointer in a basketball game with troops in Kuwait; receiving what amounted to an endorsement from a smitten French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and addressing a Berlin crowd of 200,000 - three times larger than any he has ever drawn in the United States. "I don't think these are the issues that are driving the polls right now," said David Axelrod, the Obama...