Record-Journal
09-11-2007, 01:20 AM
Local residents, including Alexander Zerio and Michael Reynolds, are caught up in the turmoil of the Iraq war, a battle that’s on center stage before Congress.
General David Petraeus, who is in charge of American troops in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, testified Monday before four congressional committees on the military and political situation there.
Facing a skeptical Congress, Petraeus said the surge of 30,000 troops Bush implemented this year has helped curb violence in Iraq.
As the nation becomes safer, Petraeus said he’s ready to send an Army and a Marine brigade home this year, with the goal of reducing troops to the pre-surge level by July of 2008.
“I believe that it is possible to achieve our objectives in Iraq over time,” Petraeus said, “although doing so will be not swift or easy.”
Zerio, an Army 2nd Lt. from Meriden, knows first hand of the safety gains.
For the last seven months, Zerio, whose father Stephen T. Zerio is the Meriden City Council majority leader, has worked in Hit, a small city in Al-Anbar province, northwest of Baghdad.
Zerio, home on a two-week break, is helping establish a local government in the city of 40,000.
“Anbar is doing really well right now,” he said, something Petraeus illustrated with a chart showing a dropoff in violent incidents in the region.
“It’s really due to Iraqis saying ‘we’re tired of this and it’s time for us to band together to make things right.’ That had to happen for the success we’re having.”
What’s happened there is a boon to the war’s supporters, but even Petraeus admitted it would be more dificult to replicate Anbar’s results in other parts of the country.
Iraq’s three major ethnic groups, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, are embroiled in a power struggle that some describe as a civil war.
That’s the reason Reynolds, an anti-war activist and member of the Meriden school board, says the situation isn’t as positive as Petraeus says.
The general’s testimony focused on Iraqis rejecting the terrorist group Al Qaeda, but “that’s only about five percent of what’s going on there,” Reynolds said. “We’re stuck in the middle of policing a civil war and there is no way to win.”
Reynolds wants to see most of the troops come home, and soon.
Those that remain would be deployed according to the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton Commission, which recommended that some troops stay to assist the Iraqi army.
“That would make the Iraqis put up or shut up,” he said.
“If they want a country, they need to defend it and police their own people. We’ve been trying since 2003. General
Petraeus has got victory always around the corner.”
Liberal activist group MoveOn.org poured fuel on the fire with a full-page ad in Monday’s New York Times that accused Petraeus of providing false information in order to support the Bush administration.
“General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” the ad asks.
In response, the National Republican Campaign Committee called on Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, D-5th, and other Democratic legislators to denounce MoveOn.org for questioning the general’s integrity.
Murphy received more than $502,000 in campaign contributions from MoveOn.org during his successful campaign last year to unseat Republican Nancy L. Johnson.
Murphy was traveling back to Washington, D.C. Monday and said he hadn’t seen the ad, but he urged groups such as MoveOn to stop placing ads and instead listen to Petraeus’ report.
“I have a great deal of admiration for Gen. Petraeus,” said Murphy, who met with him during a visit to Iraq in the spring.
“We’re all rooting for the military to succeed, but the true measure of success is whether the Iraqi politicians gain control. Clearly, they have not done that.”
To force politicians there to reach compromises, Murphy supports setting a firm timetable to remove troops. The American military presence is providing a crutch, he said, for Iraqis to avoid taking responsibility.
“The Iraqis are going to weave and dodge so long as American troops are protecting every political faction in Iraq,” Murphy said.
Iraqi police are stepping up in Anbar, Zerio said.
“From what I’ve seen and the progress I’ve made,” Zerio said, “within a year we should see them having 98 percent of the responsibility. They’re going to take over.”
But Reynolds points to centuries of instability in Iraq to say that the solution won’t be easy.
“There can’t be a happy ending to the story,” said Reynolds, who protests against the war with the Connecticut Peace Coalition.
“On the best of days, (Iraq’s ethnic groups) get along like three rabid cats in a bag. Here we are trying to make a nation out of them at gunpoint.”
Petraeus and Crocker are set to appear again today before the committees.
General David Petraeus, who is in charge of American troops in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, testified Monday before four congressional committees on the military and political situation there.
Facing a skeptical Congress, Petraeus said the surge of 30,000 troops Bush implemented this year has helped curb violence in Iraq.
As the nation becomes safer, Petraeus said he’s ready to send an Army and a Marine brigade home this year, with the goal of reducing troops to the pre-surge level by July of 2008.
“I believe that it is possible to achieve our objectives in Iraq over time,” Petraeus said, “although doing so will be not swift or easy.”
Zerio, an Army 2nd Lt. from Meriden, knows first hand of the safety gains.
For the last seven months, Zerio, whose father Stephen T. Zerio is the Meriden City Council majority leader, has worked in Hit, a small city in Al-Anbar province, northwest of Baghdad.
Zerio, home on a two-week break, is helping establish a local government in the city of 40,000.
“Anbar is doing really well right now,” he said, something Petraeus illustrated with a chart showing a dropoff in violent incidents in the region.
“It’s really due to Iraqis saying ‘we’re tired of this and it’s time for us to band together to make things right.’ That had to happen for the success we’re having.”
What’s happened there is a boon to the war’s supporters, but even Petraeus admitted it would be more dificult to replicate Anbar’s results in other parts of the country.
Iraq’s three major ethnic groups, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, are embroiled in a power struggle that some describe as a civil war.
That’s the reason Reynolds, an anti-war activist and member of the Meriden school board, says the situation isn’t as positive as Petraeus says.
The general’s testimony focused on Iraqis rejecting the terrorist group Al Qaeda, but “that’s only about five percent of what’s going on there,” Reynolds said. “We’re stuck in the middle of policing a civil war and there is no way to win.”
Reynolds wants to see most of the troops come home, and soon.
Those that remain would be deployed according to the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton Commission, which recommended that some troops stay to assist the Iraqi army.
“That would make the Iraqis put up or shut up,” he said.
“If they want a country, they need to defend it and police their own people. We’ve been trying since 2003. General
Petraeus has got victory always around the corner.”
Liberal activist group MoveOn.org poured fuel on the fire with a full-page ad in Monday’s New York Times that accused Petraeus of providing false information in order to support the Bush administration.
“General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” the ad asks.
In response, the National Republican Campaign Committee called on Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, D-5th, and other Democratic legislators to denounce MoveOn.org for questioning the general’s integrity.
Murphy received more than $502,000 in campaign contributions from MoveOn.org during his successful campaign last year to unseat Republican Nancy L. Johnson.
Murphy was traveling back to Washington, D.C. Monday and said he hadn’t seen the ad, but he urged groups such as MoveOn to stop placing ads and instead listen to Petraeus’ report.
“I have a great deal of admiration for Gen. Petraeus,” said Murphy, who met with him during a visit to Iraq in the spring.
“We’re all rooting for the military to succeed, but the true measure of success is whether the Iraqi politicians gain control. Clearly, they have not done that.”
To force politicians there to reach compromises, Murphy supports setting a firm timetable to remove troops. The American military presence is providing a crutch, he said, for Iraqis to avoid taking responsibility.
“The Iraqis are going to weave and dodge so long as American troops are protecting every political faction in Iraq,” Murphy said.
Iraqi police are stepping up in Anbar, Zerio said.
“From what I’ve seen and the progress I’ve made,” Zerio said, “within a year we should see them having 98 percent of the responsibility. They’re going to take over.”
But Reynolds points to centuries of instability in Iraq to say that the solution won’t be easy.
“There can’t be a happy ending to the story,” said Reynolds, who protests against the war with the Connecticut Peace Coalition.
“On the best of days, (Iraq’s ethnic groups) get along like three rabid cats in a bag. Here we are trying to make a nation out of them at gunpoint.”
Petraeus and Crocker are set to appear again today before the committees.