Douglas Alexander: “today General Petraeus comes to the Senate. I suggest that we listen to the General. When he reported to the Senate last…”

“today General Petraeus comes to the Senate. I suggest that we listen to the General. When he reported to the Senate last September, some Senators were unwilling to listen. One even said that she thought that in order to believe the reports from Iraq it required a willing suspension of disbelief. Let us remember what has happened since then. I can remember last August visiting with General Petraeus in Baghdad. I handed him a paper that said: It is time for a new strategy in Iraq. I had been urging President Bush and the Senate to adopt the Iraq Study Group recommendations. In my view, what General Petraeus has done since that time has been to adopt the Iraq Study Group recommendations with some amendments. We are acknowledging that it is time to shift the mission from combat to support, province by province. We are acknowledging that there will be a long-term presence of the United States in Iraq, but as General Petraeus said, it is steadily diminishing. We are acknowledging that this is an important step-up in diplomatic and political efforts. As General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker speak today, the questions we should ask are: What progress are we making down this new path to bring this war to a successful conclusion?”