In April, Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, testified before the House and Senate that significant progress has been made in Iraq since last spring, but it is “fragile and reversible.” He called for a suspension of troop withdrawals when the last surge brigade combat team leaves Iraq in July, a 45-day period of consolidation and evaluation, then an assessment of conditions prior to recommending further drawdowns.

Gen. Petraeus attributed the improvement in security in Iraq to the addition of the U.S. surge troops and more than 100,000 Iraqi forces, the joint deployment of Coalition and Iraqi forces in counterinsurgency operations, and the attitudinal shift among more than 90,000 Iraqis—Sons of Iraq (who receive monthly stipends to help shore up local security)—that prompted them to contribute to local security efforts.

The cease-fire declared by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr last fall was also a factor in the overall reduction of violence, said Gen. Petraeus, and the spike in violence that began in late March—when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an operation against insurgents in the southern city of Basra—highlights its importance. The flare-up, he added, underscores the fragility of progress and “the destructive role Iran has played in funding, training, arming and directing” so-called extremist special groups.

As ethnic and sectarian communities compete for power and resources in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus said, terrorists, insurgents, militia extremists and criminal gangs threaten to push that competition to violence. Despite corruption, remaining sectarian mistrust and insufficient capacity on the part of the government, the ethno-sectarian competition is now “taking place more through debate and less through violence.”

Gen. Petraeus pointed to several specific measures of progress. For nearly six months, security incidents had dropped to the lowest level since 2005; they have begun to turn back down again after the recent spike. Civilian deaths and deaths caused by ethno-sectarian violence have decreased. Although high-profile attacks increased in March, the current level is still far below that of last year.

The Sons of Iraq, Gen Petraeus reported, have significantly boosted the recovery of improvised explosive devices as well as weapons and explosives caches. The group has become a target of al Qaeda elements, whose attacks have further alienated the Iraqi people, he said, and the combination of relentless pursuit with loss of local support has reduced al Qaeda’s power, numbers and freedom of movement. Gen. Petraeus explained that defeating al Qaeda in Iraq requires a complex combination of numerous efforts in addition to those by counterterrorist and conventional forces.

The performance of many Iraqi security units has been solid, said Gen. Petraeus, though there are clearly areas that need considerable work. Many challenges remain in Iraq, including the fact that improvements in security have “created expectations that progress will continue,” he added.

During their time on Capitol Hill, Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker, who testified with him, faced hours of questioning from members of Congress. They would give no estimate of a time frame for troop withdrawal or describe specific conditions necessary in Iraq to allow further reductions. When pressed, Gen. Petraeus said: “We’re not after Jeffersonian democracy. We’re after conditions that would allow our soldiers to disengage. And that is in fact what we are doing as we achieve progress, as we have with the surge, and … is indeed allowing us to withdraw the surge units.”


PRESIDENT CONCURS
President Bush delivered a statement after meeting with Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker at the White House in which he fully endorsed their recommendations.

To ease the strain on the force, the President announced that tour lengths for soldiers deploying to war zones after August 1 will drop from 15 months to 12 months; the reduced deployment time will not affect troops deployed prior to that date. In addition, he said, units will have at least one year home for every year deployed. Some 140,000 troops will remain in Iraq after July, when all five surge brigades will have redeployed.

Alluding to congressional criticism of the cost of the war, the President said the U.S. share of security costs will drop as Iraq’s economy continues to grow.


GEN. CALDWELL ON FM--3-0
In April, Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, commanding general of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., briefed the Airland Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Army’s new operations manual, FM 3-0 Operations, which “marks a revolutionary shift in focus,” recognizing the importance of civilian populations. The manual notes that current conflicts cannot be solved by military means alone. As forces defeat an enemy with offensive and defensive operations, they must simultaneously perform nonlethal operations that restore security and normalcy to the local populations. The four most significant manual changes Gen. Caldwell noted are:

• It is framed around the concept of full spectrum operations, which drives initiative, emphasizes prudent risk and creates opportunities to achieve decisive results.

• It emphasizes the central role of the commander in operations, recognizing the need for human solutions to the complexities of conflict, and provides a model for the creative application of the commander’s experience, knowledge and intuition in full spectrum operations.

• It elevates stability operations to equal status with traditional offensive and defensive operations, acknowledging that a combination of constructive and destructive capabilities is necessary to achieve lasting peace.

• It embraces the unparalleled power of information in contemporary operations. Perception equals reality to many people, so soldiers and leaders must secure the trust of the population through actions, words and gestures; the success or failure of a stability operation often rests with people’s perceptions.


GEN. CODY REPORTS ON THE ARMY
Addressing a large audience of Army and industry leaders at the Association of the United States Army’s Institute of Land Warfare breakfast in April, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody said there is no historical precedent for a volunteer professional Army serving on such a large scale for so long, so well and so far away from home.

Gen. Cody, who has announced plans to retire in August, said that the days ahead will test whether the nation will continue to have the “wisdom, courage and foresight” to sustain the all-volunteer force in an era of “persistent conflict and unpredictable challenges.” He said Congress must pass the Army’s fiscal year (FY) 2008 supplemental budget request and its FY 2009 budget to avoid neglecting national defense as the nation did after previous wars. “It is the soldier who pays the price in blood when we as a nation are unwilling to be prepared,” he said. The nation must “be willing to support them through deeds, not words, to keep our Army resourced today and tomorrow,” he added.

In testimony before both the House and Senate, Gen. Cody again called for funding of the Army’s FY 2009 budget request of $140.7 billion and warned that delaying funding—beyond the end of May—of the $66.5 billion FY 2008 request for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would have substantial impact on readiness. Gen. Cody said the Army’s Grow the Force initiative is a critical part of reducing stress on the force, improving readiness and building strategic depth.